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[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.

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[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.