Chapter Eighty-Eight: The End of the Matter

The police car sped down the road as Scott sat in the back seat, urgently explaining to Paxton, hoping to convince him to let him go back and destroy the Yellowjacket suit. But Paxton simply refused to believe anything Scott said.

Just then, an alert crackled over the radio: an emergency at 840 Winter Street! Both Scott and Paxton were startled—this was his ex-wife’s house. Cassie was in danger! The three of them immediately drove toward Scott’s ex-wife’s home.

It turned out that Darren Cross had gone straight to Scott’s house. He had long known about Scott’s existence and had captured Cassie to threaten him. Cross no longer cared about the Avengers—he had lost everything, and now he just wanted to kill Scott.

By the time they arrived, the house was already surrounded by police. Scott’s ex-wife, in tears, told Paxton that Cassie had been taken by a monster.

Hearing this, Scott became frantic. He wanted to rescue Cassie but was still handcuffed. Forcing the helmet onto his head, he shrank down, slipped the handcuffs, and leapt toward Cassie’s room on the second floor.

At that moment, as Darren Cross seized Cassie, Scott appeared before him.

“So you’ve finally come, Scott Lang!” Darren Cross said.

“Daddy, is that you?” Cassie asked, looking at the figure in red leather and a helmet.

“Hey, Peanut!” Scott flipped open his helmet, revealing his face. Cassie beamed with joy at the sight of her father.

“Why don’t you pick on someone your own size?” Scott shouted, throwing a shrinking dart at Darren Cross. As Cross shrank, Cassie seized the chance to break free and hide.

Scott shrank as well, and the two began fighting atop Cassie’s toy train. Scott summoned a swarm of bullet ants to attack Darren Cross.

Their battle raged throughout Cassie’s room. Scott threw two enlarging darts, but Darren Cross dodged them.

Cross then grew to full size and fired his laser at Scott. At that moment, Paxton burst in, attempting to shoot Cross, but Cross knocked the gun from his hand with a single punch.

Seeing an opportunity, Scott leaped onto the back of the Yellowjacket armor, trying to break in. Unfortunately, the armor was made of titanium alloy—too strong to damage.

Scott had no choice but to grow and engage Cross in hand-to-hand combat. Paxton tried to grab Cassie and flee, but Cross blocked him.

Scott realized he would have to shrink to the molecular level to enter the Yellowjacket suit.

With grim determination, Scott disabled the regulator and kept shrinking, finally making his way inside the armor. He began destroying the suit’s circuitry, sparks and explosions flying from Cross’s back.

With a single punch, Scott shattered the Pym particle core of the Yellowjacket suit. In an instant, Cross shrank uncontrollably, vanishing into a single glowing point before exploding.

Scott, meanwhile, continued to shrink, frantically pressing the enlargement button on his left hand, but nothing happened—the regulator was broken!

He watched as the atoms around him grew larger and larger—he was shrinking beyond comprehension.

He remembered what Dr. Pym had once said—he would enter a place where space and time differed from the outside world: the Quantum Realm.

Scott entered the Quantum Realm, with countless particles swirling around him. He nearly lost consciousness, but then heard his daughter’s voice calling to him.

Scott pulled out an enlarging dart, inserted it into the regulator, and pressed the button. At last, it responded. He finally escaped the Quantum Realm and returned to the real world.

Cassie, seeing Scott appear before her, ran to embrace him. Scott hugged her tightly, overjoyed.

Paxton, standing to the side, remarked, "You blew a huge hole in the roof!"

Scott glanced up at the ceiling, replying awkwardly, "Sorry about that!"

In the end, Paxton let Scott go. Shrinking down, Scott slipped away, so that when the other police entered, only Cassie and Paxton remained.

Arthur Hope and Dr. Pym watched the entire scene from the surveillance room in the villa, smiling in satisfaction. This incident was finally over.

...

“Scott, come on! You really don’t remember anything?” Dr. Pym pressed Scott.

“Hank, I honestly don’t remember,” Scott replied helplessly.

“You must remember something! I suppose the human mind can’t yet comprehend such an experience, but you did it! You went in, and came back alive!” Dr. Pym suddenly felt renewed confidence in his Quantum Realm research.

“Well, the mission’s complete. Time for me to head back. Scott, remember what you promised,” Arthur said, rising to leave.

“Thank you so much, Arthur! I’m getting old and can’t offer much help, but I’ve decided to continue researching the Quantum Realm—that’s been my lifelong dream!” said Dr. Pym.

Arthur nodded in understanding. In the end, Dr. Pym chose not to join the Avengers, but he agreed to let Scott join as Ant-Man.

Arthur didn’t make the trip in vain. Scott needed a proper job, so Arthur sent him to report to Sam, who would arrange work for him.

Speaking of Sam, Arthur uploaded the video of Scott’s fight with Sam to the Heroes Video Network and tagged several Avengers.

News of Sam getting schooled by a newcomer quickly spread. Captain America and the others even liked the video.

Sam called to complain to Arthur, chiding him for betraying a friend for the sake of a laugh.

...

Stark Tower, New York City

After the Battle of New York, Tony Stark rebuilt Stark Tower as the Avengers’ New York headquarters.

Since the other bases needed rebuilding, Stark Tower was ready to use with only minor modifications.

The Chitauri had inspired Tony greatly, and he had built an army of iron soldiers for the Avengers, collaborating with Dr. Banner to develop intelligent robots.

These weren’t suits of armor but machines with AI software, each controlled by JARVIS and capable of countless tasks.

All the robots were manufactured on an assembly line, and their parts were interchangeable—broken parts could be swapped out for new ones, making maintenance easy.

During this period, Steve Rogers led the team in dismantling over a dozen Hydra strongholds. The remaining Hydra bases were abandoned, their agents in hiding, terrified of being hunted by the Avengers.

Wanda and Pietro had joined several missions as well, beginning to assist the Avengers in their operations.

By now, the Avengers had become a fully operational force. Steve Rogers led the action team, which included the Winter Soldier Bucky, Falcon Sam, Quicksilver Pietro, and Thor. Together, they targeted Hydra nests.

The research team, headed by Dr. Banner and Tony Stark, focused on weapons development.

Agent Hill, Black Widow Natasha, and Hawkeye Barton managed overall coordination and liaised with other nations regarding mission requests.

Colonel Rhodes, the War Machine, handled requests from the US military. Scarlet Witch Wanda accompanied the action team on simpler assignments.

Spider-Man Peter Parker, now a senior in high school, was focusing on his studies and not participating in Avengers missions for the time being.

There was also Captain Marvel, whose existence was known only to Nick Fury.

Now Arthur had invited Scott Lang to join the Avengers as well. The team was truly flourishing with talent.

...