Back to GatefoldIssue #7 by A. Crute
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"South of the Border"
Santo Rico International Airport
The weather in Santo Rico was as it usually was: tropical. The tiny South American country was the quintessential equatorial country. It had warm winters and blazing hot summers. The country was so tiny it could fit inside most of the states in America; if it appeared on a map at all it was usually in one of those zoomed in boxes so it could be seen at all.
Santo Rico was generally a quiet and relaxed place where the only real industries were catering to visiting tourists and subsistence farming or fishing where possible. It was however famous for two things. A little over a decade ago the country, despite its size, was a hot bed of political intrigue around the world. It was a tiny communist paradise since a revolution had installed a series of dictators one after another. It was at this time that the people of the tiny tropical paradise had some of the lowest life satisfaction scores in the developed world constantly living in fear of the whims of their leaders.
The worst was the mad man El Toro.
He ruled the country like the worst bully in the school yard. This was until Hank Pym and Janet Van Dyne, back in their days as Giant Man and Wasp, turned up on the scene. In the space of an afternoon Giant Man managed to defeat his small army of heavies which allowed the people of the country to rise up and take back their country.
This was before the Avengers, obviously. Hank still had in the office at his house the news clipping from the New York Times calling it ‘the quickest and safest revolution in history’. That was it; the big international history of the country.
Henry, Janet, Scott Lang and Cassie Lang sat in the small airplane on the runway after landing. Cassie undid her seatbelt and sat forward clutching her sides.
“Its okay honey, we’ve landed now.” Scott ran his hands through his little girl’s hair. She might have been training to be a big time superhero now (much to Scott’s chagrin) but she still got airsick at the slightest sign of turbulence like they had over the mountain ridge which backed the country.
“I just need to get off and get my feet back on solid ground. What’s taking so long?”
Hank checked his watched and leaned towards the two of them. “It has been a little time. I’ll give him a few more minutes and then maybe I should go and speak to the pilot?”
Jan gave him a worried look, something about this seemed odd to her. “Just think, Cassie…this time tomorrow morning we will be lying on the Santo Rico white sandy beaches enjoying the finest in cocktails; non-alcoholic of course.” Hank coughed gently. “I think the party starts tomorrow afternoon. It’s as much for you as it is for me.” He smiled at Jan. She rubbed her hand against his. The two exes had in recent weeks been rekindling whatever it was the two of them once had.
“Yes, I’m sure, that’s why they call it Giant Man Day.” Jan rolled her eyes and gave him a guilty stare which made Hank blush.
He was about to respond when the cabin door opened and the pilot exited. He had changed from his shirt into a bright flowery number and was wearing a garland of flowers. He grinned happily at his four passengers as he moved past them and opened the door to the plane and the small set of steps which had been pushed up to it. “I apologies for the delay, they were setting up.”
He motioned for the foursome to leave the plane and as they stepped through the door into the blistering heat and blazing sunshine they all let out tiny gasps.
There must have been 300 people gathered on the runway all dressed in bright clothing, carrying big signs and banners welcoming their heroes back to the country. They began to cheer and sing a song in Portugese.
“Wow, they seem happy to have you back. You wouldn’t think you did this every year,” laughed Scott Lang. He was feeling a little bit like the lesser Ant-Man given the reception his predecessor was currently getting.
“Except last year, I missed it because of the whole Kang thing,” Hank sighed.
“And the four before that,” Jan said with a wry smile “Skrulls, Ultron, Kang again and then the Flu…man flu.”
“Has it really been 5 years,” Hank seemed to do the mental math. “Wow.”
The four superheroes made their way down the steps and moved towards the crowd. Once they were within about 20 feet the crowds rushed towards them and began to speak as one patting them all on the shoulder or grabbing their hands where possible.
“Excuse me, Mr. Pym,” shouted a suited man very close to Hank’s face in an effort to be heard. “I am Mr. Botelho and I run the hotel where we have made your reservations. I have a car waiting for you.”
He motioned for some people to move out of the way and let the heroes through. A large black stretch hummer waited at the end of the runway for the group and Mr. Botelho quickly moved them towards it and closed the door as the last of them climbed inside. He himself jumped into the passenger seat.
“Maybe we should stay a little longer; they’ve made a lot of effort to come out here.” Hank leaned forward to look into the face of the tall thin man. His moustache twitched as he smiled and shook his head.
“I assure you, Mr. Pym, we have plenty of time for that back in the Capital Square. Thousands of people are waiting there, if you would like to go back to the hotel first and relax for a little while then I am sure we can accommodate.”
Hank looked to his three companions. They one by one sounded off that they didn’t need to go back to the hotel for anything really. They were as excited as he was just to continue with the trip.
“On to the festival it is then. First let me slip into something more comfortable,” Hank smiled and increased his size slightly tearing his clothes clean from his body as he just focused on his actual body and the thin red sheath which covered it.
There in the car now sat the figure of Giant-Man. “I thought I’d break out the old costume for old times sake,” He smiled to the others.
“I thought this kind of thing made you embarrassed,” Jan teased him. Hank had always hated the fame and notoriety. It had been one of the things which caused him to leave the avengers so many times in the past.
Hank opened his mouth to speak but couldn’t think of anything to say. The fact was he was excited. This more than anything, no matter how many times he’d saved the world and other things…this was one of his proudest achievements.
Saving the world in one giant battle or combating a virus of Psycho-Man and what have you made big differences to the world: they saved the lives of 6.8 billion people, which was a massive accomplishment, but afterwards everything had gone back to normal. It all seems almost dream like or as if you’d been watching a movie. This was really something, this was in the history books and you could see it on the faces of every single person in the country that what he had done here really meant something.
The four chatted in the car over nothing much. They talked about Cassie and the New Warriors but mostly just about the events of the day. Mr. Botelho was being tight lipped about his knowledge of the events of this brief festival.
They soon arrived in the capital of the country, the only place in the country which could really be described as a city. They moved through busy streets which had old cars parked along each side. Buntings were hung across the streets and the place was filled with music and laughter.
The humvee made its way through the streets with relatively little difficulty. The people parted around it, whacking their hands on its hoods and against the windows. There were children trying to run alongside it. The four heroes waved from inside the vehicle until they pulled up at their destination.
“Well Mr. Pym, are you ready to meet your adoring public?” asked Mr. Bortelho as he climbed out of the car and moved to open the door.
Hank stepped out into the street growing slightly in size as he did so until her was 15 feet tall. He waved to the crowd to a big cheer.
Nearby a few men stood in silence. They were not joining in the big cheering masses of their fellow countrymen or the singing and dancing which had erupted all around their city. They stood in a side alley of one of the streets behind the crowds. Two sat on a dumpster watching the giant figure of Hank Pym moving through the crowds slowly. He was hunched slightly reaching down to shake hands with the people on the street.
“Look how he bends to work with the little people like some demi-god,” scowled a bearded man. His jacket was pulled up high over his face so that his features couldn’t be seen. He was aware he could be being watched, he was certainly on several international no fly lists.
He had seen much hardship in his life. He had fought his way up from the slums of the country with no help at all from the government. He had fought and scrapped for everything that he had been given in life and it had hardened him. He viewed everything thing as a struggle.
He was Santo, named for his country. He lived for his country as did his brother before him. He believed in what his country could be and he believed in its people and how they didn’t need handouts from American superhumans. He would show the people Hank Pym for everything he was, like his brother ‘El Toro’ had tried to do before him. He would show them.
Santo would return the country back to its people and put it back onto the right track which it had once been while his brother had been in power and he was military leader. He would show the people too; he watched as they rejoiced like morons unaware of what was going on in the world around them. He would regain the power that they had fought so hard for before and prove that they were best for this country.
First however he would gain revenge for his brother, a hero who had gone down in infamy for nothing but the manipulations of Hank Pym. “Move, we have only bought a 4 minute gap in security at the hotel.” he commanded to his hired companions. They stole away quickly down the alleyway. He gave one last glare at Hank Pym and then followed.
Hank stood still in the crowd. They were heading to the hotel but his attention had been caught by one of the many attractions going on (though most eyes were now on him). Jan and Scott stood in ant sized form on his left shoulder so they could see over the crowd and Cassie sat at her normal height on his right.
Their eyes were on a bunch of local school children standing on a small makeshift stage. The first child, who seemed to be a main character, was a chunky child (no doubt chosen for his role because of it) who wore a papier-mâché hat with two tiny protruding horns. He was shouting and throwing what looked like a mini tantrum shoving his classmates around.
His classmates cowered on the floor. “Please Toro, let us go,” begged one little girl. She put quite a lot of effort into the cry of pain as he slapped her away.
“Never! Now fetch me my food!” barked the child playing El Toro.
“STOP!” screamed a child through a megaphone who was crouched down behind a bush on the stage. He stood up in full Giant-Man costume. It was tight to him and the legs were long and baggy covering a pair of stilts on which he walked.
A tiny girl (the smallest in her class) dressed in a red and black Wasp costume ran on stage making a loud buzzing noise. “Giant Man and Washp are here!” she barked loudly causing several of the terrified townspeople to giggle hysterically.
Hank and the crowd began to laugh too. A teacher at the side of the stage shushed the children and then motioned for the main cast to continue.
“Were here to stop you!” said the stilted child and waded not very confidently towards El Toro. When he got next to the child he stood still and then toppled himself forward. ‘El Toro’ caught him and they both fell to the floor.
El Toro rolled him sideways and stood up holding his head. “You have beaten me!” he roared and ran off stage. A number of villagers followed him shouting. The rest helped Giant Man to his feet with a cheer.
The children all filed back onto the stage and bowed to a round of applause led by Hank.
“Watching a coo is odd when played out by children. It’s not at all how I remember it,” Wasp laughed.
# # # # #
An hour later…
The group had moved through the crowd and festivities for an hour before they were finally ushered into the hotel. Mr. Botelho assured Hank that the sun in the early afternoon would make the party die down until a little later and it would be for the best to seek some rest because it would go on late into the night. There were still, however, a large number of people still in Capital Square outside the hotel.
Hank had decided a shower would be the best thing for him, going to giant size had increased the intensity of heat onto him making him feel quite disgusting. Jan and Scott were sitting on the balcony overlooking the hotel pool in Scott’s room. Cassie had been sitting with them but had moved into the room to get a better internet signal so she could send a message to the other New Warriors. That now done, she moved back towards her father and Aunt Jan.
“Has it changed much?” Scott asked as he took a sip from his drink.
“Massively. I can’t recognize anything. Yet again everything changes,” she laughed.
Scott sniggered. “Yeah, it was what? 12 years ago? God Cass was only a toddler. I was still in grad school and living on a shoestring with her mother…I did not expect life to turn out this way.” He ran his finger around the top of his glass.
Cassie stopped to listen. She liked to hear her parents talk about each other even if Scott did have a hint of sadness in is voice.
“I really loved her so much,” Scott smiled to Jan.
“Young love huh?” she smiled back. “I remember, I know I used to think the sun shone only for Hank. When we were here…” Jan drifted off in her sentence.
“You seem to be getting there again,” said Scott. Jan grinned back to him. “It’s just a shame all of that happened in the middle.”
Jan nodded. “Part of me wishes it never did and part of me wouldn’t trade it. It’s part of who we are. It changed both of us…I think I like us the way we are.”
Scott nodded. “Look, I don’t want to drudge it all back up but how did you forgive him. Me and Peggy just drifted apart and yet I just feel so…ugh about her some times. Hank…well he abused you, tried to attack the Avengers…well you know. How…”
Cassie didn’t hear the rest. She backed away from the door silently. Her mind swam with the information. How did she not know? Little things began to slide into place in her mind, little comments people had said and things.
Cassie didn’t know because Scott had protected her, kept it all from her. She looked up to and loved her ‘Uncle and Aunt’ and he didn’t want to tarnish that. He knew he couldn’t keep it from her forever, it was public record and was only a matter of time before she caught some special on TV, read Hank’s Wikipedia article or, damn, even caught the punch line to a joke on TV. She suddenly felt ill. Her stomach gave a lurch as she thought about it. She couldn’t believe it. This was her Uncle Hank, he was a hero. He couldn’t have done this…it couldn’t be real.
She didn’t even know what she was doing anymore she just kept backing away from the scene outside as if doing so would make it all not real, she was getting as much distance from it as she could. The door suddenly collided with her in a gentle ‘thunk’. “Oh, Cassie are you okay?” Hank asked. He smiled down at her.
Cassie looked up at him. Hank couldn’t have described the look that crossed Cassie’s face if he had tried. It was just sheer abject terror. “Cassie, are you okay?”
# # # # #
Outside…
The heat was absolutely killing him. He could feel the hot trickle of sweat running down his body and collecting in all the wrong places. He pulled on the crotch of his clothing underneath his long coat. He glanced around at the people in the crowd to make sure no one was giving him suspicious looks. He hadn’t thought about this until he’d gotten to the damn festival. Heat was usually much less of an issue for him.
The scenes around him turned his stomach. He hated Hank Pym with a burning passion. No matter what other villains were hiding out there, from Eggman to Ultron, none of them had the history with Hank Pym that he did.
Hank had stolen his entire life, ruined his job and took the woman he loved from him. Every single time he saw Pym it was just a reminder of his lost love, the thing which made him happiest in the world.
He moved through the crowd of idiots who worshipped the giant fool with a snarl. He’d make an example of them too as soon as he got to the hotel. The streets were just too crowded for a full on superhero battle and that would give him the upper hand.
# # # # #
Inside…
“I’m fine,” Cassie nodded sheepishly. She shifted her position and leaned her weight backwards as if to move away from her uncle.
“Are you sure,” Hank reached forward to touch Cassie’s forehead. He knew of at least 20 illnesses which…given the temperature, Cassie’s age, her heart condition and her having never been south of the equator…could cause serious illness.
Cassie flinched away, then looked at her uncle. “I’m sorry,” she said.
“Cassie, what’s wrong?” Hank asked with urgency in his voice. He was really beginning to worry, he was about to shout Jan and Scott into the room.
Cassie looked over at Jan and Scott and bit her lip. “Please tell me it isn’t true,” she managed to say before tears began to roll down her cheeks.
Hank was about to ask her what she was talking about and then his stomach lurched. She’d found out the truth…it was the only possibility, he was sure of it. He knew that it would happen one day, he knew that he’d have to talk to Cassie and she would go through the exact same thing that every one of his friends and family had done. They’d have to move through the stages of disgust and forgiveness that every single person he cared about had had to do. He had made a mistake with Jan all those years ago and it involved them all.
“Cassie, can I talk to you in the other room,” he motioned past himself. “It’s okay, I won’t hurt you.” The last half of the sentence he had to add twisted like a knife in his gut. Cassie should have known that, he shouldn’t have had to tell her but he felt he had to.
Cassie nodded sheepishly and moved into the room. It suddenly seemed so alien to her, so different. She moved across the room and perched on the very edge of the bed. “Please just tell me.”
“I’m sorry Cassie…it really happened,” he said with great sadness in his voice.
“You used to hit Aunt Jan….you fought the Avengers/” Cassie shook her head as if that would make it all not true.
“I didn’t used to hit her; it was one time, Cassie. I hit her once.”
“That doesn’t make it ok!” Cassie spat rising from her quiet whisper to a shout.
“No, it doesn’t and never think that’s what I meant…I know it doesn’t I was just trying to put it in context. Look, you know I have been ill in the past…”
“Ill! I thought you had depression or something not…not whatever this was.”
“Look, Cassie, I need to explain this, please just let me get through it.” Hank nodded slowly and Cassie mimicked his movement. “Pym Particles at the start of their lives were sort of unstable. They messed around with my biochemistry like a child with a chainsaw. I’m not saying any of what happened wouldn’t have happened without them. Mental illness runs in my family.”
Hank paused, he was babbling and he knew it. He took a deep breath. “It wasn’t me…it was but it wasn’t. I need you to understand, the things the Pym particles did to me altered my brain chemistry. It made me into someone else, he is part of me and always will be, but he isn’t me. It’s the little voice in the back of everyone’s mind which tells them to do things. You can normally ignore it but…”
Cassie nodded along, she seemed to be understanding what he was saying. “...how much has your Dad told you about alternate realities?”
“A little bit, it seems to depend on how he feels after being there…sometimes he comes back and just goes to his room.”
Henry nodded. He fully understood it. “Sometimes you visit these realities and things are just too different, friends are dead. The worst part, however, is that every single time one of your friends is a bad guy. They’re the same person, same genetics, mostly the same childhood but they’re not them. They’re cruel or angry, or one or two times they’re evil. I fought an evil version of your Dad once…he’d killed a lot of people.”
Hank bit his lip. He had never planned on telling Cassie this but he had to explain and this was the only way which he could think about it. She was a super-hero herself now, so one day she’d have to deal with it that’s just how it went. “He wasn’t your Dad…but he was, he was a possibility which your Dad had or has inside him…it’s inside all of us. It just turns out that mine was let out here too and then he turned back into me. I get tarred with his brush.”
Hank stared at Cassie; she was pursing her lips and nodding very slowly. She wasn’t okay with this not by a long shot. “This was the first time that you were Yellowjacket? I don’t understand why you’ve went back to the identity.”
“You have to understand, Cassie, I’m through apologizing for it all. Constantly, every single day people judge me for what happened and I cannot run away from it. Whatever identity I use this is the one who keeps being thrown back in my face. The only way to get over this is to redeem this identity. I’m redeeming myself but I am through apologizing Cassie.”
“Uncle Hank, I…”
The door of the room flew open Jan and Scott bursting through from the other side. They were stripping their clothes down to their costumes underneath. “Hank, we’ve got a problem outside…an old ‘friend’ is here,” Jan said as she moved quickly across the room and threw the balcony doors open.
Hank had been so focused on the conversation with Cassie he hadn’t even noticed the commotion outside. The wind howled loudly blowing the curtains in. The wind pushed hard against the heroes making them take a step backwards as it pushed against them.
Screams of people outside were carried on the wind. A cart of food which also seemed to be carried on the air smashed into the doorframe and splintered into wood before dragging it away in the hurricane forced winds.
“Whirlwind again!” Yellowjacket growled as he pulled the uniform out of his bag and began to pull it on under his towel. “I want you all to stay inside. I’m handling this.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me!” barked the Wasp. She’d been an Avenger from day 1 and had actually served more time than Hank.
“You try flying out there in that wind. I’m not devaluing you or your skills but insects tend not to do very well in tornadoes. There’s only one way to deal with this.” Hank began to increase his size and moved towards the window. He was 10 feet tall as he cleared the balcony and 20 as he landed.
“PYM!!!” screamed Whirlwind from the town square. He moved quickly, darting round the area in a circular motion calling a bigger and bigger tornado around his own personal vortex. “I know she’s in there with you.”
Yellowjacket rushed forward. The bodies of people caught up in the tornado slammed into him with dull thumps. Rocks, carts and debris from some crumbling buildings hurt him a lot more. His head flew to the side as a pillar from the front of the hotel slammed against his face, sending out a spattering of blood into the wind.
“What is it with you! Every 6 months or so you come after one of us, just get it through your pointy skull. Jan wants nothing to do with you!”
The wind howled, knocking Hank sideways a few steps before he managed to regain his balance. He was careful to avoid some of the locals who had taken to hiding behind some low walls and were unable to move because of the wind.
“She’s mine! She’s not yours!” screamed Whirlwind. He zoomed across to a car catching it up in his vortex and hurling it at Hank. He caught the vehicle and slammed it into the ground before slamming his foot on it to keep it down.”
Jan’s voice suddenly sounded in his ears. “For the last time I’m not anyone’s and I never was! I choose to be with who I want to be with and it’s never going to be you!”
She stood up at full human size on Hank’s shoulder.
“I asked you to stay inside!” he pleaded with her. He should have known she would never listen.
“I was on the back of your costume before you even got out of the room, you always seem to forget I’ve got other powers than shrinking down and I’m a much better flier than you. One thing years of cross winds at Wasp size have taught me…Just go with it!”
Jan spread her human sized wings wide and dropped forward into the winds to be caught and picked up by them. She hurtled sideways and away from Hank in a large circle. She titled her wings to keep herself upright in the massive winds and began to fire her Wasp Stings at the speeding super-villain.
The blasts struck home and sent him flying backwards. The winds instantly died down letting Jan gently glide down to the floor on her wings. She touched down on the floor and instantly turned to see Yellowjacket hurtle over to jump on Whirlwind with his full weight.
The villain began to spin as quickly as he could, meaning the giant hero collided with a column of wind which pushed him up into the air before slamming him down. The weight of his own body being used against him painfully.
Whirlwind hurtled off the top of him and across the square through the center of some debris. The debris was well aimed and shot across the room like a pillar where it pounded into Jan. She was thrown back hard.
“Jan!” yelled Hank. He shrunk to normal human size because it was much easier to maneuver at that size and launched to his feet to run at his fallen love.
Whirlwind was on him in seconds. The feet quickly came out from under the superhero as he was pulled up into the air. He rotated around the circumference of Whirlwind’s tornado about 70 times in a number of seconds before he managed to grow in size and destabilizing his spin, which sent him slamming into the ground and skidding sideways into a building.
Whirlwind didn’t let up this time. He was on him in a second and quickly moved onto Hank’s face. He spun faster and began to suck the air out of Hank’s lungs. He was meaning it all this time…it was no longer about just humiliating Hank in front of Wasp. He wanted him dead.
Yellowjacket’s hands flew up to swat at Whirlwind but the villain moved too quickly and began to siphon the air again. Hank’s hands instinctively moved to his throat as if someone was actually choking him.
Whirlwind suddenly shot sideways into a building. “Get the hell away from my Uncle!” screamed Stature in her New Warriors uniform. Her foot throbbed slightly from where she had just kicked the villain full force into a wall.
She was standing at just over 30 feet. She moved towards her uncle. “Stay on him!” barked her Dad from his place on her shoulder.
“Okay sorry,” Cassie apologized and moved toward Whirlwind before he could recover.
She got to him just as he started to spin. She let out a yelp of pain. The debris that he had picked up in his vortex took the skin off of her palms like it was sandpaper. She rocked forward however and tightened her hands around him.
She turned quickly on the spot and slammed her hands down onto the floor. The force in her palms stopped instantly. She moved her hands apart and looked down at the unconscious villain.
“Oh my God! I didn’t mean to hit him that hard…I think he’s dead!” She watched him for a few seconds and saw his chest moving in and out. “Oh! It’s okay, he’s just unconscious.” She let out a worried laugh.
“Wow, that was impressive,” coughed Hank as he stood at her side. He was inhaling deeply and began to decrease in size. She followed suit.
Wasp began to size up next to them and brushed the dust off of herself. She swung her foot into the rib cage of the villain. “Ass!” she growled.
The four heroes stood side by side over the fallen villain. There rose suddenly an all mighty cheer around them as the people came from their hiding places and celebrated their safety because of these heroes once again.
“Cassie, I think next year they might have a play about you,” Hank said as he put an arm around her and pulled her into the side of his chest for a little hug.
# # # # #
Meanwhile, in Hank’s room…
The closet door swung open with a flash of light as the figure of Santo spilled to the floor. A large hole circled by cauterized flesh sizzled through the center of his head.
He had been lying in wait to ambush the heroes when they least suspected his action. Given they didn’t even know he existed this could have come at any time really.
A figure stepped out from behind him in the closet and glared down at the figure he had just killed with his Bio Blast. He leaned forward and hauled him up into the air as he began to shrink the bulk of the communist.
Yellowjacket looked out of the window at the cheering crowds, where the other Yellowjacket and the other heroes who were now beginning to help with the clean up of the square.
“Celebrate now,” he smiled to them from the distance. “Your whole lives are going to hell shortly.”
The weather in Santo Rico was as it usually was: tropical. The tiny South American country was the quintessential equatorial country. It had warm winters and blazing hot summers. The country was so tiny it could fit inside most of the states in America; if it appeared on a map at all it was usually in one of those zoomed in boxes so it could be seen at all.
Santo Rico was generally a quiet and relaxed place where the only real industries were catering to visiting tourists and subsistence farming or fishing where possible. It was however famous for two things. A little over a decade ago the country, despite its size, was a hot bed of political intrigue around the world. It was a tiny communist paradise since a revolution had installed a series of dictators one after another. It was at this time that the people of the tiny tropical paradise had some of the lowest life satisfaction scores in the developed world constantly living in fear of the whims of their leaders.
The worst was the mad man El Toro.
He ruled the country like the worst bully in the school yard. This was until Hank Pym and Janet Van Dyne, back in their days as Giant Man and Wasp, turned up on the scene. In the space of an afternoon Giant Man managed to defeat his small army of heavies which allowed the people of the country to rise up and take back their country.
This was before the Avengers, obviously. Hank still had in the office at his house the news clipping from the New York Times calling it ‘the quickest and safest revolution in history’. That was it; the big international history of the country.
Henry, Janet, Scott Lang and Cassie Lang sat in the small airplane on the runway after landing. Cassie undid her seatbelt and sat forward clutching her sides.
“Its okay honey, we’ve landed now.” Scott ran his hands through his little girl’s hair. She might have been training to be a big time superhero now (much to Scott’s chagrin) but she still got airsick at the slightest sign of turbulence like they had over the mountain ridge which backed the country.
“I just need to get off and get my feet back on solid ground. What’s taking so long?”
Hank checked his watched and leaned towards the two of them. “It has been a little time. I’ll give him a few more minutes and then maybe I should go and speak to the pilot?”
Jan gave him a worried look, something about this seemed odd to her. “Just think, Cassie…this time tomorrow morning we will be lying on the Santo Rico white sandy beaches enjoying the finest in cocktails; non-alcoholic of course.” Hank coughed gently. “I think the party starts tomorrow afternoon. It’s as much for you as it is for me.” He smiled at Jan. She rubbed her hand against his. The two exes had in recent weeks been rekindling whatever it was the two of them once had.
“Yes, I’m sure, that’s why they call it Giant Man Day.” Jan rolled her eyes and gave him a guilty stare which made Hank blush.
He was about to respond when the cabin door opened and the pilot exited. He had changed from his shirt into a bright flowery number and was wearing a garland of flowers. He grinned happily at his four passengers as he moved past them and opened the door to the plane and the small set of steps which had been pushed up to it. “I apologies for the delay, they were setting up.”
He motioned for the foursome to leave the plane and as they stepped through the door into the blistering heat and blazing sunshine they all let out tiny gasps.
There must have been 300 people gathered on the runway all dressed in bright clothing, carrying big signs and banners welcoming their heroes back to the country. They began to cheer and sing a song in Portugese.
“Wow, they seem happy to have you back. You wouldn’t think you did this every year,” laughed Scott Lang. He was feeling a little bit like the lesser Ant-Man given the reception his predecessor was currently getting.
“Except last year, I missed it because of the whole Kang thing,” Hank sighed.
“And the four before that,” Jan said with a wry smile “Skrulls, Ultron, Kang again and then the Flu…man flu.”
“Has it really been 5 years,” Hank seemed to do the mental math. “Wow.”
The four superheroes made their way down the steps and moved towards the crowd. Once they were within about 20 feet the crowds rushed towards them and began to speak as one patting them all on the shoulder or grabbing their hands where possible.
“Excuse me, Mr. Pym,” shouted a suited man very close to Hank’s face in an effort to be heard. “I am Mr. Botelho and I run the hotel where we have made your reservations. I have a car waiting for you.”
He motioned for some people to move out of the way and let the heroes through. A large black stretch hummer waited at the end of the runway for the group and Mr. Botelho quickly moved them towards it and closed the door as the last of them climbed inside. He himself jumped into the passenger seat.
“Maybe we should stay a little longer; they’ve made a lot of effort to come out here.” Hank leaned forward to look into the face of the tall thin man. His moustache twitched as he smiled and shook his head.
“I assure you, Mr. Pym, we have plenty of time for that back in the Capital Square. Thousands of people are waiting there, if you would like to go back to the hotel first and relax for a little while then I am sure we can accommodate.”
Hank looked to his three companions. They one by one sounded off that they didn’t need to go back to the hotel for anything really. They were as excited as he was just to continue with the trip.
“On to the festival it is then. First let me slip into something more comfortable,” Hank smiled and increased his size slightly tearing his clothes clean from his body as he just focused on his actual body and the thin red sheath which covered it.
There in the car now sat the figure of Giant-Man. “I thought I’d break out the old costume for old times sake,” He smiled to the others.
“I thought this kind of thing made you embarrassed,” Jan teased him. Hank had always hated the fame and notoriety. It had been one of the things which caused him to leave the avengers so many times in the past.
Hank opened his mouth to speak but couldn’t think of anything to say. The fact was he was excited. This more than anything, no matter how many times he’d saved the world and other things…this was one of his proudest achievements.
Saving the world in one giant battle or combating a virus of Psycho-Man and what have you made big differences to the world: they saved the lives of 6.8 billion people, which was a massive accomplishment, but afterwards everything had gone back to normal. It all seems almost dream like or as if you’d been watching a movie. This was really something, this was in the history books and you could see it on the faces of every single person in the country that what he had done here really meant something.
The four chatted in the car over nothing much. They talked about Cassie and the New Warriors but mostly just about the events of the day. Mr. Botelho was being tight lipped about his knowledge of the events of this brief festival.
They soon arrived in the capital of the country, the only place in the country which could really be described as a city. They moved through busy streets which had old cars parked along each side. Buntings were hung across the streets and the place was filled with music and laughter.
The humvee made its way through the streets with relatively little difficulty. The people parted around it, whacking their hands on its hoods and against the windows. There were children trying to run alongside it. The four heroes waved from inside the vehicle until they pulled up at their destination.
“Well Mr. Pym, are you ready to meet your adoring public?” asked Mr. Bortelho as he climbed out of the car and moved to open the door.
Hank stepped out into the street growing slightly in size as he did so until her was 15 feet tall. He waved to the crowd to a big cheer.
Nearby a few men stood in silence. They were not joining in the big cheering masses of their fellow countrymen or the singing and dancing which had erupted all around their city. They stood in a side alley of one of the streets behind the crowds. Two sat on a dumpster watching the giant figure of Hank Pym moving through the crowds slowly. He was hunched slightly reaching down to shake hands with the people on the street.
“Look how he bends to work with the little people like some demi-god,” scowled a bearded man. His jacket was pulled up high over his face so that his features couldn’t be seen. He was aware he could be being watched, he was certainly on several international no fly lists.
He had seen much hardship in his life. He had fought his way up from the slums of the country with no help at all from the government. He had fought and scrapped for everything that he had been given in life and it had hardened him. He viewed everything thing as a struggle.
He was Santo, named for his country. He lived for his country as did his brother before him. He believed in what his country could be and he believed in its people and how they didn’t need handouts from American superhumans. He would show the people Hank Pym for everything he was, like his brother ‘El Toro’ had tried to do before him. He would show them.
Santo would return the country back to its people and put it back onto the right track which it had once been while his brother had been in power and he was military leader. He would show the people too; he watched as they rejoiced like morons unaware of what was going on in the world around them. He would regain the power that they had fought so hard for before and prove that they were best for this country.
First however he would gain revenge for his brother, a hero who had gone down in infamy for nothing but the manipulations of Hank Pym. “Move, we have only bought a 4 minute gap in security at the hotel.” he commanded to his hired companions. They stole away quickly down the alleyway. He gave one last glare at Hank Pym and then followed.
Hank stood still in the crowd. They were heading to the hotel but his attention had been caught by one of the many attractions going on (though most eyes were now on him). Jan and Scott stood in ant sized form on his left shoulder so they could see over the crowd and Cassie sat at her normal height on his right.
Their eyes were on a bunch of local school children standing on a small makeshift stage. The first child, who seemed to be a main character, was a chunky child (no doubt chosen for his role because of it) who wore a papier-mâché hat with two tiny protruding horns. He was shouting and throwing what looked like a mini tantrum shoving his classmates around.
His classmates cowered on the floor. “Please Toro, let us go,” begged one little girl. She put quite a lot of effort into the cry of pain as he slapped her away.
“Never! Now fetch me my food!” barked the child playing El Toro.
“STOP!” screamed a child through a megaphone who was crouched down behind a bush on the stage. He stood up in full Giant-Man costume. It was tight to him and the legs were long and baggy covering a pair of stilts on which he walked.
A tiny girl (the smallest in her class) dressed in a red and black Wasp costume ran on stage making a loud buzzing noise. “Giant Man and Washp are here!” she barked loudly causing several of the terrified townspeople to giggle hysterically.
Hank and the crowd began to laugh too. A teacher at the side of the stage shushed the children and then motioned for the main cast to continue.
“Were here to stop you!” said the stilted child and waded not very confidently towards El Toro. When he got next to the child he stood still and then toppled himself forward. ‘El Toro’ caught him and they both fell to the floor.
El Toro rolled him sideways and stood up holding his head. “You have beaten me!” he roared and ran off stage. A number of villagers followed him shouting. The rest helped Giant Man to his feet with a cheer.
The children all filed back onto the stage and bowed to a round of applause led by Hank.
“Watching a coo is odd when played out by children. It’s not at all how I remember it,” Wasp laughed.
# # # # #
An hour later…
The group had moved through the crowd and festivities for an hour before they were finally ushered into the hotel. Mr. Botelho assured Hank that the sun in the early afternoon would make the party die down until a little later and it would be for the best to seek some rest because it would go on late into the night. There were still, however, a large number of people still in Capital Square outside the hotel.
Hank had decided a shower would be the best thing for him, going to giant size had increased the intensity of heat onto him making him feel quite disgusting. Jan and Scott were sitting on the balcony overlooking the hotel pool in Scott’s room. Cassie had been sitting with them but had moved into the room to get a better internet signal so she could send a message to the other New Warriors. That now done, she moved back towards her father and Aunt Jan.
“Has it changed much?” Scott asked as he took a sip from his drink.
“Massively. I can’t recognize anything. Yet again everything changes,” she laughed.
Scott sniggered. “Yeah, it was what? 12 years ago? God Cass was only a toddler. I was still in grad school and living on a shoestring with her mother…I did not expect life to turn out this way.” He ran his finger around the top of his glass.
Cassie stopped to listen. She liked to hear her parents talk about each other even if Scott did have a hint of sadness in is voice.
“I really loved her so much,” Scott smiled to Jan.
“Young love huh?” she smiled back. “I remember, I know I used to think the sun shone only for Hank. When we were here…” Jan drifted off in her sentence.
“You seem to be getting there again,” said Scott. Jan grinned back to him. “It’s just a shame all of that happened in the middle.”
Jan nodded. “Part of me wishes it never did and part of me wouldn’t trade it. It’s part of who we are. It changed both of us…I think I like us the way we are.”
Scott nodded. “Look, I don’t want to drudge it all back up but how did you forgive him. Me and Peggy just drifted apart and yet I just feel so…ugh about her some times. Hank…well he abused you, tried to attack the Avengers…well you know. How…”
Cassie didn’t hear the rest. She backed away from the door silently. Her mind swam with the information. How did she not know? Little things began to slide into place in her mind, little comments people had said and things.
Cassie didn’t know because Scott had protected her, kept it all from her. She looked up to and loved her ‘Uncle and Aunt’ and he didn’t want to tarnish that. He knew he couldn’t keep it from her forever, it was public record and was only a matter of time before she caught some special on TV, read Hank’s Wikipedia article or, damn, even caught the punch line to a joke on TV. She suddenly felt ill. Her stomach gave a lurch as she thought about it. She couldn’t believe it. This was her Uncle Hank, he was a hero. He couldn’t have done this…it couldn’t be real.
She didn’t even know what she was doing anymore she just kept backing away from the scene outside as if doing so would make it all not real, she was getting as much distance from it as she could. The door suddenly collided with her in a gentle ‘thunk’. “Oh, Cassie are you okay?” Hank asked. He smiled down at her.
Cassie looked up at him. Hank couldn’t have described the look that crossed Cassie’s face if he had tried. It was just sheer abject terror. “Cassie, are you okay?”
# # # # #
Outside…
The heat was absolutely killing him. He could feel the hot trickle of sweat running down his body and collecting in all the wrong places. He pulled on the crotch of his clothing underneath his long coat. He glanced around at the people in the crowd to make sure no one was giving him suspicious looks. He hadn’t thought about this until he’d gotten to the damn festival. Heat was usually much less of an issue for him.
The scenes around him turned his stomach. He hated Hank Pym with a burning passion. No matter what other villains were hiding out there, from Eggman to Ultron, none of them had the history with Hank Pym that he did.
Hank had stolen his entire life, ruined his job and took the woman he loved from him. Every single time he saw Pym it was just a reminder of his lost love, the thing which made him happiest in the world.
He moved through the crowd of idiots who worshipped the giant fool with a snarl. He’d make an example of them too as soon as he got to the hotel. The streets were just too crowded for a full on superhero battle and that would give him the upper hand.
# # # # #
Inside…
“I’m fine,” Cassie nodded sheepishly. She shifted her position and leaned her weight backwards as if to move away from her uncle.
“Are you sure,” Hank reached forward to touch Cassie’s forehead. He knew of at least 20 illnesses which…given the temperature, Cassie’s age, her heart condition and her having never been south of the equator…could cause serious illness.
Cassie flinched away, then looked at her uncle. “I’m sorry,” she said.
“Cassie, what’s wrong?” Hank asked with urgency in his voice. He was really beginning to worry, he was about to shout Jan and Scott into the room.
Cassie looked over at Jan and Scott and bit her lip. “Please tell me it isn’t true,” she managed to say before tears began to roll down her cheeks.
Hank was about to ask her what she was talking about and then his stomach lurched. She’d found out the truth…it was the only possibility, he was sure of it. He knew that it would happen one day, he knew that he’d have to talk to Cassie and she would go through the exact same thing that every one of his friends and family had done. They’d have to move through the stages of disgust and forgiveness that every single person he cared about had had to do. He had made a mistake with Jan all those years ago and it involved them all.
“Cassie, can I talk to you in the other room,” he motioned past himself. “It’s okay, I won’t hurt you.” The last half of the sentence he had to add twisted like a knife in his gut. Cassie should have known that, he shouldn’t have had to tell her but he felt he had to.
Cassie nodded sheepishly and moved into the room. It suddenly seemed so alien to her, so different. She moved across the room and perched on the very edge of the bed. “Please just tell me.”
“I’m sorry Cassie…it really happened,” he said with great sadness in his voice.
“You used to hit Aunt Jan….you fought the Avengers/” Cassie shook her head as if that would make it all not true.
“I didn’t used to hit her; it was one time, Cassie. I hit her once.”
“That doesn’t make it ok!” Cassie spat rising from her quiet whisper to a shout.
“No, it doesn’t and never think that’s what I meant…I know it doesn’t I was just trying to put it in context. Look, you know I have been ill in the past…”
“Ill! I thought you had depression or something not…not whatever this was.”
“Look, Cassie, I need to explain this, please just let me get through it.” Hank nodded slowly and Cassie mimicked his movement. “Pym Particles at the start of their lives were sort of unstable. They messed around with my biochemistry like a child with a chainsaw. I’m not saying any of what happened wouldn’t have happened without them. Mental illness runs in my family.”
Hank paused, he was babbling and he knew it. He took a deep breath. “It wasn’t me…it was but it wasn’t. I need you to understand, the things the Pym particles did to me altered my brain chemistry. It made me into someone else, he is part of me and always will be, but he isn’t me. It’s the little voice in the back of everyone’s mind which tells them to do things. You can normally ignore it but…”
Cassie nodded along, she seemed to be understanding what he was saying. “...how much has your Dad told you about alternate realities?”
“A little bit, it seems to depend on how he feels after being there…sometimes he comes back and just goes to his room.”
Henry nodded. He fully understood it. “Sometimes you visit these realities and things are just too different, friends are dead. The worst part, however, is that every single time one of your friends is a bad guy. They’re the same person, same genetics, mostly the same childhood but they’re not them. They’re cruel or angry, or one or two times they’re evil. I fought an evil version of your Dad once…he’d killed a lot of people.”
Hank bit his lip. He had never planned on telling Cassie this but he had to explain and this was the only way which he could think about it. She was a super-hero herself now, so one day she’d have to deal with it that’s just how it went. “He wasn’t your Dad…but he was, he was a possibility which your Dad had or has inside him…it’s inside all of us. It just turns out that mine was let out here too and then he turned back into me. I get tarred with his brush.”
Hank stared at Cassie; she was pursing her lips and nodding very slowly. She wasn’t okay with this not by a long shot. “This was the first time that you were Yellowjacket? I don’t understand why you’ve went back to the identity.”
“You have to understand, Cassie, I’m through apologizing for it all. Constantly, every single day people judge me for what happened and I cannot run away from it. Whatever identity I use this is the one who keeps being thrown back in my face. The only way to get over this is to redeem this identity. I’m redeeming myself but I am through apologizing Cassie.”
“Uncle Hank, I…”
The door of the room flew open Jan and Scott bursting through from the other side. They were stripping their clothes down to their costumes underneath. “Hank, we’ve got a problem outside…an old ‘friend’ is here,” Jan said as she moved quickly across the room and threw the balcony doors open.
Hank had been so focused on the conversation with Cassie he hadn’t even noticed the commotion outside. The wind howled loudly blowing the curtains in. The wind pushed hard against the heroes making them take a step backwards as it pushed against them.
Screams of people outside were carried on the wind. A cart of food which also seemed to be carried on the air smashed into the doorframe and splintered into wood before dragging it away in the hurricane forced winds.
“Whirlwind again!” Yellowjacket growled as he pulled the uniform out of his bag and began to pull it on under his towel. “I want you all to stay inside. I’m handling this.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me!” barked the Wasp. She’d been an Avenger from day 1 and had actually served more time than Hank.
“You try flying out there in that wind. I’m not devaluing you or your skills but insects tend not to do very well in tornadoes. There’s only one way to deal with this.” Hank began to increase his size and moved towards the window. He was 10 feet tall as he cleared the balcony and 20 as he landed.
“PYM!!!” screamed Whirlwind from the town square. He moved quickly, darting round the area in a circular motion calling a bigger and bigger tornado around his own personal vortex. “I know she’s in there with you.”
Yellowjacket rushed forward. The bodies of people caught up in the tornado slammed into him with dull thumps. Rocks, carts and debris from some crumbling buildings hurt him a lot more. His head flew to the side as a pillar from the front of the hotel slammed against his face, sending out a spattering of blood into the wind.
“What is it with you! Every 6 months or so you come after one of us, just get it through your pointy skull. Jan wants nothing to do with you!”
The wind howled, knocking Hank sideways a few steps before he managed to regain his balance. He was careful to avoid some of the locals who had taken to hiding behind some low walls and were unable to move because of the wind.
“She’s mine! She’s not yours!” screamed Whirlwind. He zoomed across to a car catching it up in his vortex and hurling it at Hank. He caught the vehicle and slammed it into the ground before slamming his foot on it to keep it down.”
Jan’s voice suddenly sounded in his ears. “For the last time I’m not anyone’s and I never was! I choose to be with who I want to be with and it’s never going to be you!”
She stood up at full human size on Hank’s shoulder.
“I asked you to stay inside!” he pleaded with her. He should have known she would never listen.
“I was on the back of your costume before you even got out of the room, you always seem to forget I’ve got other powers than shrinking down and I’m a much better flier than you. One thing years of cross winds at Wasp size have taught me…Just go with it!”
Jan spread her human sized wings wide and dropped forward into the winds to be caught and picked up by them. She hurtled sideways and away from Hank in a large circle. She titled her wings to keep herself upright in the massive winds and began to fire her Wasp Stings at the speeding super-villain.
The blasts struck home and sent him flying backwards. The winds instantly died down letting Jan gently glide down to the floor on her wings. She touched down on the floor and instantly turned to see Yellowjacket hurtle over to jump on Whirlwind with his full weight.
The villain began to spin as quickly as he could, meaning the giant hero collided with a column of wind which pushed him up into the air before slamming him down. The weight of his own body being used against him painfully.
Whirlwind hurtled off the top of him and across the square through the center of some debris. The debris was well aimed and shot across the room like a pillar where it pounded into Jan. She was thrown back hard.
“Jan!” yelled Hank. He shrunk to normal human size because it was much easier to maneuver at that size and launched to his feet to run at his fallen love.
Whirlwind was on him in seconds. The feet quickly came out from under the superhero as he was pulled up into the air. He rotated around the circumference of Whirlwind’s tornado about 70 times in a number of seconds before he managed to grow in size and destabilizing his spin, which sent him slamming into the ground and skidding sideways into a building.
Whirlwind didn’t let up this time. He was on him in a second and quickly moved onto Hank’s face. He spun faster and began to suck the air out of Hank’s lungs. He was meaning it all this time…it was no longer about just humiliating Hank in front of Wasp. He wanted him dead.
Yellowjacket’s hands flew up to swat at Whirlwind but the villain moved too quickly and began to siphon the air again. Hank’s hands instinctively moved to his throat as if someone was actually choking him.
Whirlwind suddenly shot sideways into a building. “Get the hell away from my Uncle!” screamed Stature in her New Warriors uniform. Her foot throbbed slightly from where she had just kicked the villain full force into a wall.
She was standing at just over 30 feet. She moved towards her uncle. “Stay on him!” barked her Dad from his place on her shoulder.
“Okay sorry,” Cassie apologized and moved toward Whirlwind before he could recover.
She got to him just as he started to spin. She let out a yelp of pain. The debris that he had picked up in his vortex took the skin off of her palms like it was sandpaper. She rocked forward however and tightened her hands around him.
She turned quickly on the spot and slammed her hands down onto the floor. The force in her palms stopped instantly. She moved her hands apart and looked down at the unconscious villain.
“Oh my God! I didn’t mean to hit him that hard…I think he’s dead!” She watched him for a few seconds and saw his chest moving in and out. “Oh! It’s okay, he’s just unconscious.” She let out a worried laugh.
“Wow, that was impressive,” coughed Hank as he stood at her side. He was inhaling deeply and began to decrease in size. She followed suit.
Wasp began to size up next to them and brushed the dust off of herself. She swung her foot into the rib cage of the villain. “Ass!” she growled.
The four heroes stood side by side over the fallen villain. There rose suddenly an all mighty cheer around them as the people came from their hiding places and celebrated their safety because of these heroes once again.
“Cassie, I think next year they might have a play about you,” Hank said as he put an arm around her and pulled her into the side of his chest for a little hug.
# # # # #
Meanwhile, in Hank’s room…
The closet door swung open with a flash of light as the figure of Santo spilled to the floor. A large hole circled by cauterized flesh sizzled through the center of his head.
He had been lying in wait to ambush the heroes when they least suspected his action. Given they didn’t even know he existed this could have come at any time really.
A figure stepped out from behind him in the closet and glared down at the figure he had just killed with his Bio Blast. He leaned forward and hauled him up into the air as he began to shrink the bulk of the communist.
Yellowjacket looked out of the window at the cheering crowds, where the other Yellowjacket and the other heroes who were now beginning to help with the clean up of the square.
“Celebrate now,” he smiled to them from the distance. “Your whole lives are going to hell shortly.”