"Relax, Scott," Lock said calmly. "You've just shrunk smaller than an ant. You'll get used to it."
Scott's panicked voice echoed through his helmet. "Get used to it? How am I supposed to get used to this? I can't even see my own hands! Lock—make it stop! I want to change back!"
He jabbed the red button on his right glove again and again, but nothing happened.
In his panic, he never noticed the identical button on his left hand — the one that actually reversed the process.
"Come on, come on!" he muttered, slamming the button repeatedly. "This is bad. This is so bad. I'm stuck like this forever! Casey's never gonna see her dad again—"
A loud squeak froze him in place.
He turned around—and his blood ran cold.
Towering above him, like a monster from a nightmare, loomed a rat. Its fur looked like steel cables, its eyes as big as car tires. The thing sniffed the air curiously, then opened its mouth, revealing teeth longer than Scott's entire body.
"Oh, come on! That's not fair!"
The rat lunged.
"Lock! HELP!"
Scott bolted, darting under furniture and through cracks in the wall. The rat chased after him, crashing into everything in its path. To anyone listening outside, it sounded like a demolition derby was happening inside the old house.
Scott never imagined he'd one day be sprinting for his life from a rodent, but here he was — the world's tiniest, most terrified thief.
Luckily, being smaller than an ant had its advantages. He slipped through narrow gaps and sprinted across baseboards faster than the rat could react.
At last, panting and disoriented, he burst out into the open and saw the van waiting on the street.
"Luis! Open the door!" he shouted. But his voice, now microscopic, was nothing more than a squeak lost to the night.
The van stayed still.
Then, with a low hum, the door clicked open by itself.
"Come up," Lock's voice said calmly.
Luis, sitting behind the wheel, jumped. "Uh… Mr. Lock? Who are you talking to?"
Scott scrambled up the metal frame of the van, narrowly avoiding a boot that came down inches from him. One of the gangsters nearly stepped on him. He finally reached Lock's side, panting.
"Lock, you knew this would happen! Why didn't you warn me first?!"
Lock's mouth curved into a faint smile. "If I told you, where would be the fun in that?"
"I'm not having fun! Just—just tell me how to turn back!"
"Press the red button," Lock said mildly, "on your left hand."
Luis and the others exchanged nervous glances. First Lock had opened the door and started talking to thin air — now he was lecturing his feet.
Either their new employer had lost his mind… or something supernatural was going on.
Then — whoosh!
Scott shot up to full size in an instant, slamming into the van's roof and knocking two of the men flat on their backs.
"AHHHHHHH!"
The three screamed in unison, covering their faces like children. When they finally peeked, they found Scott standing there, breathing hard and very much alive.
Luis's jaw dropped. "What the hell just happened?!"
Scott dusted himself off. "Long story. Short version? Drive. You guys screaming like that is gonna bring every cop in the neighborhood."
Luis stomped on the gas, and the van sped off into the night, leaving a trail of exhaust and confusion behind.
Meanwhile, back at the house, Dr. Hank Pym sat before a cluster of monitors, eyebrows raised.
Everything had gone as expected — up until the thief started talking to someone. At first, Pym assumed he was on a phone call. But then, instead of stealing anything, the man had put on the Ant-Man suit and activated it flawlessly.
And then there was the strangest part: a door outside the house opening on its own, as if inviting him to escape.
"They seem… familiar with the technology," Pym murmured, frowning.
Still, he didn't intervene. The Ant-Man suit carried his remote tracking systems. Through it, he could monitor, communicate, and, if necessary… destroy it.
He couldn't risk the Pym Particle formula falling into the wrong hands. It wasn't just powerful — it was dangerous. If weaponized, it could destabilize governments overnight.
Cross, his former protégé, had already started down that path. The man's brilliance was undeniable, but so was his greed. He'd managed to shrink inanimate objects — a step closer to perfecting the formula for living organisms.
If Cross succeeded, nations would have access to invisible assassins — soldiers no bigger than insects, able to infiltrate anywhere, kill anyone.
Pym shuddered. A world ruled by ants in human form. A new age of assassination.
That was why Scott Lang had been chosen: skilled, desperate, and motivated by love for his daughter. The perfect man to stop Cross.
Still, something about tonight bothered him.
That man — the one who'd opened the van door — he wasn't supposed to exist in this equation.
Back in the van, the crew was finally starting to calm down.
Luis stared at the suit in awe. "So this thing can make you shrink and grow? Bro, that's insane. Forget stealing jewelry — this is worth, like, all the jewelry."
Scott nodded, running a hand along the suit. His engineer's mind was racing. "Lock, this tech… it's revolutionary. You realize what this means? The science alone—"
Luis cut him off. "Wait, wait. You're not working for the FBI, are you? Or, like, the CIA? This feels like one of those sting operations."
Lock chuIt'sd softly. "I told you before — I'm with S.H.I.E.L.D."
Luis blinked. "...Okay. Yeah. Sure."
Scott sighed. "Alright, Lock. If you don't want to tell me what's really going on, fine. I've got the suit — we're square, right?"
Lock shook his head. "Scott, you still don't get it. The suit isn't what matters. You do."
To him, Ant-Man was like Iron Man — a hero made powerful by the right tool. But what separated a savior from a soldier wasn't the armor. It was the soul inside it.
Still, curiosity tugged at him. The suit was sitting there, humming faintly, almost calling out to be tested.
"Alright," Lock said, "let's see how this feels."
Before anyone could stop him, he slipped into the Ant-Man suit. It was tight — he was taller than Scott — but he managed to zip it up.
He pressed the activation switch.
A faint click. Then a sudden snap.
The suit didn't shrink — it collapsed, disintegrating with a static crackle.
"Uh… Lock?" Scott said slowly. "Was that supposed to happen? Where'd the suit go?"
Lock exhaled, using his awareness to scan the floor. He found it — a scrap of cloth no bigger than a soybean, lying in the dust.
He sighed. "It didn't vanish. It shrank."
The once-legendary Ant-Man suit now looked like a crumpled shred of paper.
Luis blinked. "So… we broke a billion-dollar super-suit in, what, five minutes?"
Scott groaned. "Casey's gonna love this."
Lock could only shake his head, staring down at the tiny ruin of the suit — and wondering just how many more surprises this world still had left for him.
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A/N: Advanced Chapters Have Been Uploaded On My Patreon
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