(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

Re: 2/2

[the_awesome_one]

"Bring it, rustbucket," she replied, grimly. She didn't even acknowledge Hank in the moment, simply pumping everything she had in the direction Ultron was coming from, nearly her entire body glowing yellow as she simply let loose.

Bolt after bolt flew through the air, punching holes in the wall beyond.

[instillpeace]

"Your efforts are futile." Ultron doesn't even try to dodge; the walls may be made of simpler materials, but Ultron's outer body is pure adamantium. The blasts that hit slow Ultron's momentum, but leave no visible damage. "The hammer of Thor or the fists of the Hulk cannot damage this chassis - what hope do you have?"

As Yellowjacket tries to find some kind of tool that he can use to free himself, Ultron returns fire, blood-red beams laser beams launching from his mouth. This does nothing to prevent him from talking, however. "Cease this foolishness. You merely prolong the inevitable."

[the_awesome_one]

In that case, time to try another tactic - namely, shrink down, get inside him and then blast him apart from the inside. She flits forward, increasing speed.

Let the villains talk enough, they'll give you ideas.

1/2

[science_is_fun]

Yellowjacket can only stare in surprise as the Wasp flies towards Ultron.

"Wasp, what are you--"

Ultron is already insect-sized, so getting small enough to get inside of him requires a person to shrink down to heights below what would be considered safe. Seeing her shrink smaller and smaller, potentially dancing on the knife's edge between staying in this universe and being stuck in the Microverse before she vanishes into Ultron's gaping mouth, causes something to snap inside of Yellowjacket.

"JAN!" Hank instinctively tries to shrink to go after her, but he's met with an electric shock. His memories from his time as Yellowjacket are jumbled and filled with blank spots, but he still picks up on a few things. The devices on his arms are clearly the cause of what just happened, Ultron is behind this, and Ultron has managed to duplicate Pym Particles - none of those are good, but only one of them matters right now.

For Yellowjacket, the Wasp was just another teammate - a fun one to mess with, sure, but not worth the risk of losing an arm over. For Hank, Janet is the entire reason why he's a superhero in the first place, and so important to him that he's willing to do something dangerous and impulsive if it's for her sake. Finding the hinges keeping the devices shut, he charges up a bio-electric blast and starts burning his way through one of the hinges. He has to be careful (a word that wasn't even in Yellowjacket's vocabulary) - too little energy, and he wouldn't get all the way through, but too much and he could burn his hands or worse.

2/2

[instillpeace]

Ultron hovers in the air, conflicted after Janet flies into his body. Cold logic would dictate that he could continue to shrink - his circuitry and wiring would risk being damaged, but the automated repair systems would fix that soon enough, and any intruders would be crushed by his indestructible adamantium body eventually.

On the other hand, it's Janet - logic (or at least Ultron's twisted logic) dictates that she's the only fitting subject for Project Jocasta. While Ultron remains dedicated to the idea of bringing about peace to the Earth by wiping out organic life, the invasions of the Skrulls, Kree, and Galactus opened Ultron's eyes to how populated the universe was, and how badly it was in need of Ultron's brand of peace.

However, a single guiding intellect would not be enough - it could lead to stagnation, repetition, and predictability, and this was unacceptable. A second guiding intellect was needed - a "queen" for his hive mind - and Janet was the perfect candidate. She had the leadership skills (whether it's business savvy or being one of the handful of people who could get the Hulk to cooperate), and she was the opposite of Henry Pym in so many ways (after his first defeat, Ultron had been forced to acknowledge that his mind was based on Pym's, though he reconciled with that by claiming to have surpassed Pym's limitations a long time ago). In addition, she was dedicated and loyal, whether it was sticking with the Avengers when they were down to three members or sticking with Pym in spite of everything that he put her through, whether it was ignoring her in favour of scientific pursuits or whatever is going with the changes in Pym's personality. All of those qualities should transfer over to Jocasta, even if the emotional side is replaced with pure logic; after all, Ultron's goal is the only logical solution.

Ultron remains frozen in place, his artificial intelligence warring between these two stances, before he registers Henry Pym's shout, which breaks the deadlock. There were other methods available that didn't involve crushing Janet, at least not physically...

Re: 2/2

[the_awesome_one]

The idea is, for her, straightforward. Ultron's body may be indestructable, but his innards certainly won't be.

Shrink down. Infiltrate, size up somewhat and then...well, unleash everything she's got before she runs out of oxygen and, God willing, burn him from the inside out.

Otherwise, he will kill Hank. Whatever else 'Yellowjacket' has done, he'll be the first to perish - and Ultron with the power of Pym Particles is an impossible threat to defeat after that. It has to be here, and right now; before anybody else can be harmed, no matter what the cost. She accepts that it might very well kill her - but you didn't sign up for the Avengers expecting to live forever.

And so, flying inside of Ultron, she stops shrinking - and begins to charge up with every ounce of energy left in her body.

[science_is_fun]

Ultron is becoming increasingly aware that this is not going to work out like he had anticipated. The energy readings building up within him are far beyond what Janet should be capable of, but after getting punched by her giant form during his first attack on the Avengers, he's aware that she can surpass her supposed limits. With an electronic signal, he commands two of his insectoid robots to shrink down Jocasta's body and take it elsewhere - he hasn't given up on that plan, and he's not going to risk Jocasta's body being damaged again.

Hank doesn't even notice, as he's dealing with bigger problems (figuratively speaking): at Ultron's current size, the mad machine is like a living bullet, and Hank's only managed to get one of the inhibitors off of his arms. Unable to shrink, having no time to think, not being able to communicate with insects, and left with energy blasts that have proven ineffective against adamantium, Hank doesn't have a whole lot of options available to him.

Ultron shoots a laser from his mouth at Hank, but he grabs a drone off of the table (one of the ones that got him into this mess) and throws it into the path of the beam, causing it to explode. This doesn't deter Ultron, however, who rockets through the smoke. "Useless."

[the_awesome_one]

She has until she passes out. She's running out of air, and she knows it. But he's going to kill Hank, and then who knows what else. And she is not, absolutely not, going out as a mechanical bride. She'd rather be dead than that.

So the choice isn't a hard one, really. She's a bit surprised at that. She closes her eyes, taking a last moment before what she assumes is, well, it.

I love you, Hank, she thinks. And then lets loose with every ounce of energy she has, a storm of yellow blazing about Ultron's innards, sizing herself back up as much as she can - and passing out as the last of her energy blasts leave her.

[science_is_fun]

Hank grabs the remaining drone to use as a makeshift shield to put between himself and Ultron. Rather than flying around it, Ultron demonstrates how futile this action is by tearing through the middle of the machine, leaving Hank holding two worthless pieces of metal and bringing him face-to-face with his own creation.

"Goodbye, Henry Pym." Ultron charges up another energy beam, believing that killing Pym would prevent this day from being a total loss. Before Ultron can deliver any kind of finishing blow, a bright yellow light shines through the gaps in his body as the Wasp's beams tear through his internal systems. He briefly considers ideas for how to prevent future encounters from going this way - barriers installed in his body, or a colony of nanomachines - before a blast tears through his power core, cutting off those plans (and his body's regeneration process) completely.

Smoke pouring out of every opening, Ultron plummets to the ground. Hank finishes burning off the last inhibitor before shrinking down and flying into Ultron's mouth, only concerned about one thing at this point.

"Jan? JAN!" At least she should be easy enough to track down - he just has to follow the trail of destruction to its source. He looks around frantically, trying to spot even a hint of yellow among the cold gray of Ultron's body.

It isn't long before he spots her, and Hank's heart stops for a moment - it's not looking good. She's passed out, and it doesn't look like she's breathing. Ironically, despite Hank picking up scientific fields of study like most people pick up hobbies, medicine isn't something that he's very knowledgeable about, but he has no choice right now.

Despite every instinct screaming for him to get Janet out of there, in case Ultron is faking it or going to regenerate, he's pretty sure that it's a bad idea to move someone when they're like this. Instead, he goes straight to CPR, alternating between mouth-to-mouth and chest compressions, listening for any kind of change in her breathing and desperately hoping that he's not too late.

Even if he could get her to a hospital, it's not like the medical professionals would be able to do much when she's at this size, and while he could find a way to make her return to normal proportions, the sudden shift in size could just make the situation worse. As terrifying as this situation is, he's the only one who can do anything to save the woman he loves.

[the_awesome_one]

It's not true, what they say. Or at least, not for her. There's no light or anything. Maybe that's just her. Or maybe...maybe there's gotta be no chance of coming back.

Because suddenly the world is light and pain again as she starts coughing, her whole body convulsing. But there's something warm, and that means it's not Ultron, and that's ok.

"Wha's hpp'n?"

[science_is_fun]

Hank breathes a sigh of relief, sitting up and pulling the mask off of his face so Janet can see a friendlier (or rather, less annoying) face once she gets up.

"You stopped Ultron, that's what happened. And then you passed out. Not sure if it's lack of oxygen or overusing your stingers. I'd guess it's the first one; we haven't spent much time at this height, so I might have to run some tests at some point. We should probably get out of here, but first thing's first - how many fingers am I holding up?"

He holds three fingers in front of her face - he probably doesn't have to, but Hank doesn't want to assume that they're out of the woods only for it to turn out that Janet has more serious problems to deal with.

[the_awesome_one]

"You sound wrong," she manages, head still swimming. She holds a hand up to her forehead. The chatter is different, so is the tone of voice.

And then, it strikes. A faint glimmer of hope, deep down.

"...Hank?"

[science_is_fun]

Hank's smile in response to that is full of warmth, very different from Yellowjacket's cocky smirks. Janet's doing a lot better, so he won't worry for now.

"It's me, Jan. And as much as I'd like to think this is permanent, I honestly don't know." Those last few words are among Hank's least favourite to say, but considering that his previous return to normal only lasted a few minutes, there's not much to go on.

"Considering that what just happened scared me more than the first time that I tested Pym Particles on myself, there's a few things that I need to say." He looks around; the air's a lot thinner at this size, and Ultron's insides aren't the best place to have a serious conversation. "...though maybe it would be better if we got out of here and grew back to normal size first - I wouldn't want either of us passing out."

[the_awesome_one]

She has no words, and instead flings her arms around his neck, squeezing him as tight as she can, a few tears escaping as she nods against his chest.

"Yeah. Get...get me out of here."

[science_is_fun]

Hank's momentarily surprised by the sudden hug before he wraps his arms around her, smiling as he rises into the air. It takes a bit to get used to flying around in the Yellowjacket suit, especially while carrying someone, but it doesn't take long to go back the way that they came in.

Once they've made it out of Ultron's mouth, Hank lets go of Janet, gently putting her feet on the ground. "Are you doing okay? Can you grow back to normal?"

Given that his track record with trying to talk about his feelings has consisted of one of them being unconscious at the time or something else interrupting him (he glances over his shoulder to make sure that Ultron isn't reactivating), he wants to be absolutely certain that Janet's not stuck at insect size or in danger of collapsing.

[the_awesome_one]

She nods, slowly. "Ye...yeah, I think so, just...gimme a sec."

She holds a hand to her head, fingers pressing past her hair.

"Ugh, what did I even do?"

[science_is_fun]

"You got extremely close to winding up in the Microverse. Thankfully, you grew larger once you got inside Ultron, so the effects weren't as bad as they could have been."

"In theory, it's a universe that exists 'beneath' our own, and if you shrink beyond a certain point, you're sent there. I've never been there myself, since I haven't been able to bring anything back, though Ultron just proved that it's possible. In theory, it could allow for safe travel between--" He stops, realizing that he's rambling.

He tries to steer himself back to the important points that he had wanted to bring up. "The first thing that I was going to say was not to shrink that small again, though I suppose risking our lives is just part of this job. At least let me do some research first; I'm not sure if humans can survive in the Microverse, and I don't want you to wind up there only to find out that they can't."

[the_awesome_one]

She groaned, but nodded.

"He was going to kill you. And with Pym Particles, he'd kill the others. Had to stop him here and now...at least until you come up with a better way."

She looks into his face with a sigh. "I failed you once...couldn't do it again."

[science_is_fun]

"I-- what?" Hank shakes his head.

"Jan, you didn't fail me. If not for you, I'd still be Yellowjacket, and I'd either have killed someone by now or I'd be dead." That miniature prison wasn't exactly stable - it definitely would have killed the Serpent Society, and likely anyone else that he sent to it, given how quickly it imploded.

"You trusted me enough to get me back into the Avengers in spite of everything, and from what I saw in the news, you stuck with the team even when it was down to just you, Hawkeye, and Cap. You always try to do the right thing, no matter how badly the odds are stacked against you. That determination's part of why I--"

He tries to force himself to get the words out - what's the worst that could happen? Aside from it turning out that he completely misinterpreted how she feels about him, and he makes a fool of himself, and...

He starts again, "Part of..." but he only manages to work up enough courage to mumble out "why I love you."

[the_awesome_one]

"No, but, I should've-"

She's cut off by him talking and then...and then he says it. Right there, out of nowhere, the thing they'd danced around and fallen back from and never, ever actually addressed.

Without hesitation, her arms go around his neck, and within an instant she's kissing him, fingers in his hair, gripping him tight. It takes her a long moment to remember that this is Hank. He'll need an answer.

"I love you too, Hank."

[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."