(no subject)

[science_is_fun]

It didn't take long after the Galactus invasion for things to go back to normal. ...or at least, normal by the standards of the Avengers. T'Challa had returned to his quarters after apprehending Bi-Beast, only to find that an small bee-like robot had slipped through the defenses of the Avengers' Mansion, bypassed T'Challa's own security measures, and was in the process of shrinking down whatever Vibranium it could find for some undoubtedly nefarious purpose.

The insectoid machine self-destructed shortly after it was spotted, but between Tony, T'Challa, and the Vision, they were able to trace a weak signal to somewhere within New York's subway systems. In case this was a trap, half of the team went to check it out, while the other half stayed at the mansion in case another threat popped up. (also, in some cases, it just made sense - having the Hulk smashing his way through the subway would likely do more harm than good, no matter who was responsible for this, and Thor wasn't as effective underground)

Yellowjacket immediately volunteered to pursue the lead - he hated waiting around, and besides, this would be a chance to prove himself. Even he could tell that the team didn't exactly trust him, so maybe if he single-handedly caught the villain responsible for this, they'd change their tune.

Unfortunately for Yellowjacket's plans, the rest of the team decided it was best to split up, and he was the only one of them stuck with a partner. The others went solo - they must have thought that he's too weak to handle this on his own. If he'd been working with Vision or Stark, that would be one thing - showing either of them up could be spun as a win.

Instead, he was with the Wasp, which... complicated things. She kept insisting that he was Hank Pym, even though Yellowjacket had killed Pym months ago. On top of that, there were times when she was around where he... didn't quite feel like himself, and Yellowjacket didn't like that one bit. It reminded him too much of Pym - that whiny pacifist had been the weak link of the Avengers, and he didn't want to turn out the same way.



"Why don't you go off on your own? Everyone else did. ...It's like they've never even seen a horror movie." Yellowjacket grins, his darker sense of humour on display. "This'd be about the part where the killer starts picking people off one by one..."

He pauses, as though he's listening for something. "Or maybe that's not 'til later." He taps at his Avengers ID card, trying to get the signal to strengthen, but it's still faintly shown on the screen, bouncing around the map of the tunnels.

Comments

[science_is_fun]

Hank cycles from nervousness to relief to getting lost in the moment as Janet suddenly pulls him into a kiss. He wraps an arm around her waist, holding her close while they kiss, as though he's worried that this is all a dream and he'll wake up if he lets go of Janet.

In spite of his concerns, hearing Janet say those four words is enough to put a big grin on his face. "I wasn't sure if now would be the right time - I don't even know what tomorrow will bring, if I'll stay this way, but I wanted to make sure that... that you know."

[the_awesome_one]

"I, Hank..."

She stops, and reaches down into her costume, pulling out a small container. "I've kept this, since...since you came back to us." She opens it up, pulling out small, folded papers.

"It's names of doctors who specialize in these sort of things, I cross-referenced their credentials and-and reviews where available along with reading their published materials and interviewed each of them..."

[science_is_fun]

"Jan..." He's not really sure what to say, but he decides to go with "Thank you. For everything."

He glances through a few of the papers; from what he can tell, she was pretty thorough with her research. "I'll definitely make this a priority - this is a second chance, and I'm not going to waste it."

Hank realizes that he'll need a lot of help, both personally and professionally, to get back to something resembling normal, but he can't just bury himself in his work and try to forget about it when that's part of what got him into this in the first place.

[the_awesome_one]

"No, it's..."

Suddenly, she's crying, her emotions tumbling out.

"I'm so sorry, Hank, I should have been there, I could've stopped all this, but I walked away when I shouldn't have..."

[science_is_fun]

"Jan..."

He holds her close, giving her time to let it all out. He's starting to feel a bit choked up himself.

"If anything, I'm the one who walked away - I'm to blame for all of that. I should have stayed, or tried to make it work, or... I don't know; I probably should have done just about anything other than leaving the team and isolating myself."

He moves to wipe away some of her tears. Seeing her like this breaks his heart, and he wants to try to cheer her up. "But unless we get Kang's time machine working, we can't change the past. Besides, at least something good came out of all of this - I'm not sure how long it would have taken for me to tell you how I feel otherwise."

[the_awesome_one]

Just having him there - him helps, a little. But she just presses into him more, with a little groan.

"I knew, and I hope you knew, but...we weren't very good at things, were we?"

[science_is_fun]

"We've got plenty of time to improve."

He chuckles as he recalls something from a while ago. "Though at least things never got as complicated between us as they did with Hawkeye and the Black Widow."

...Or was it Hawkeye and Mockingbird? T'Challa had made some cryptic comment about Hawkeye's weakness being blondes shortly before the Hydra/AIM civil war.

[the_awesome_one]

"Ugh, well, if we're at that level then we're already on the train to weird town, so...yeah, let's avoid that."

Who even knew anymore, with those two. Or three. Hard to tell.

"Can we just run away and be like this for, like, a month?"

[science_is_fun]

Hank looks at Janet's research, giving a small smile.

"That depends - if any of these are retreats, I'd be more confident with returning to the team if I've gone through more thorough treatment. And I'm sure that the staff would be more at ease with an Avenger around in case I wind up reverting."

Sure, it's a flimsy justification, and his expression makes it clear that he's not too concerned about reverting back to Yellowjacket at the moment (or at least, he's trying to keep it light for Janet's sake), but somehow, he feels like the team won't object to the two of them taking some time off.

[the_awesome_one]

"A couple are," she says, in a rush, hand lifting to brush through his hair. "I just...I want to be there, this time. For you. For us."

[science_is_fun]

"Right. Of course. And I swear I won't run away this time."

From the team, from his problems, from Janet... There are a lot of things that he needs to handle better this time around. Still, he chuckles a bit.

"So do we tell the rest of the team that I'm back for real, or let them wait for a bit?"

[the_awesome_one]

"We have to, since, you know, Ultron," she said, with a sigh. "We'd best get on that."

[science_is_fun]

"Right, just checking."

On top of that, they'll likely have to call in Vision to help with dismantling the place and making sure there's no trace of Ultron in here. Still, it was good to be back.

((OoC: Not sure if you want to end this here, since I think we've covered all that we wanted to.))