Chapter 112 – The Journey of an Ant-Man
112
The Quantum Realm
5:08:42
Scott Lang
Maybe there was a whole other side to the end of reality.
If he could mentally keep time, Scott Lang could only assume that he had been trapped in the Quantum Realm for seventeen hours. It felt that long, and thankfully he didn’t have to rely on his lesser instincts to keep track of himself or his own surroundings. The Ant-Man suit came equipped with a watch on its forearm, and even when he traversed a world completely hidden from what was perceivable, the watch still kept that time of what was real close to him.
It told Scott that he had been wandering the Quantum Realm for a little more than five hours.
And he wandered. He failed to resume contact with Hope, Janet, and Hank on the other end, several minutes of nothing but silence being that indicator to give up and weigh his options. Even if he wasn’t equipped for it, he tried to grow manually, tampering with his suit and pressing down repeatedly on the small button on his forefinger. No luck. After having to physically swim across the vast nothingness of the sea of colors he was left in, Scott somehow managed to find some form of solid ground. It took a couple of hours to actually reach that point in his journey, but it was a step in the right direction nonetheless. Scott really wished it was the right direction. Any form of solid ground—or whatever type of ground it was—was better than swimming in nothing.
For a few hours, Scott simply walked. He gazed upon the majesty and terrifying scope of the Quantum Realm. It was an ever-moving, chaotic mixture of the beautiful and the horrifying, like a bright, colorful, wondrous cave that went on forever. Sometimes he would come across a molecular beast swimming over his head, forcing Scott to slide to cover and wait for the creature to lose interest. His eyes danced wildly beneath the bright red lenses of the Ant-Man helmet, Scott talking to himself to ensure he wouldn’t lose his mind.
“All right… this looks like the place Janet would have stayed. Really cozy… real homey. That’s gotta be the couch… that’s gotta be some kind of… bathroom. Maybe. God, I’m hungry.”
Maybe he already did.
Maybe there was a whole other side to the end of reality.
No way to know unless he found it. It felt like forever, but it had only been a little more than five hours, Scott already dreading the moment he would have accepted his fate of ultimately being trapped in the limitless expanse. No hope of rescue. No clear idea how he was going to feed himself. There was just… nothing. That was all Scott could see as he walked aimlessly, for what seemed to be miles—or centimeters—but Scott could never really tell. He dragged his feet across the swirling, dancing ground, heavy arms swaying by his sides as even his head fell slack forward, eyelids heavy as the insurmountable weight started to push him down. The colors and swirling lights played with his brain, making him see things he would have desired, sometimes things he dreaded. His arms were a blur, fingers appearing in the dozens, blackness overcoming the edges of his vision.
How Janet even survived for thirty years in the Quantum Realm was beyond him. Alone, no doubt. Scott was already starting to miss Hank’s voice yelling in his ear. He was really missing Hope, the dreaded thought occurring to him that he probably wouldn’t see her for days. Maybe longer. That, or he would already be dead.
Just that thought made him think of his daughter… of Cassie. He lifted his head and gasped quietly, that painful revelation creeping its way in and refusing to leave him. He had a reason to continue to fight and he would do whatever it took to see her again. Scott, however, couldn’t focus on it forever. He wanted to think of Cassie but his focus trailed elsewhere. Directly ahead of him.
Then he reached that end, lifted his eyes and opened them wide. He had reached it.
He saw the end of reality.
Kind of.
It appeared to him as a swirling vortex, its center a bright and vivid purple and blue with the rest of it consumed by an ever-expanding swirl of red, joining the rest of the expanse surrounding it. Beside that vortex, surrounding nearly every edge, corner, and everywhere he could turn, Scott could only see several more. Dozens, hundreds of vortexes spanning as far as his eye could see. The ground had ended mere yards ahead of his feet, stepping off into that gaping maw of a vortex. It was practically waiting for Scott, the bright purples and blues swirling against the red lenses of his helmet’s eyes.
Ignoring the clear signs of danger, disregarding the compact, almost miniature cities trapped in distant pockets lying above him, Scott Lang never realized he stepped right into a time vortex before it was too late.
Before he even knew it, he was flying.
It was so fast it was almost incomprehensible. Scott thought he screamed but all that could escape his voice was a multitude of the same reverberation, amplified almost ten different times. His limbs became distorted, mere blurs of several arms and legs at one time. Scott flailed as he fell, as he flew, as he darted straight into the purple and the blue and was forced to stare straight into it. He saw things he couldn’t even imagine. They flashed by as broken windows hidden within various different directions, fractures of a seemingly distorted version of reality. That was what he saw.
Scott almost didn’t believe it.
He saw alternate realities. Entire universes locked away within pockets of the vortex. The flashes lingered, Scott screaming as they flew across his vision and infected him, sending his brainwaves into overdrive to try and comprehend everything displayed before him. He could have fallen into any one of the directions. He could have turned a centimeter and winded up in some alternate dimension, another reality, or some other universe entirely… only he didn’t. He flew straight through it all and saw the swirling lights at the end of the long, dark tunnel. The bright reds, yellows, and oranges. All leading up to the piercing whiteness resting in the heart of it all.
Ant-Man screamed as the white overcame his vision. He closed his eyes…
Running face-first into a pile of dusty cardboard boxes and old Christmas decorations.
The U-STORE-It Self-Storage facility in San Francisco wasn’t one of the most well-kept storage facilities around. There were entire sections filled to the brim and threatening to spill over into the walkway had the steel fences not been risen to separate each section. Poor lighting, plus the rat infestation, and add it all up to the unbearable dust constantly floating and swirling in the air made it a struggle for any living creature to survive within it.
Scott experienced that struggle as he fumbled at his helmet, deactivating the Ant-Man mask and allowing the man beneath it to gasp in sharply. He instantly started coughing, waving a gloved-palm out in front of him to wave away the dust particles floating down on top of him. In the blur of his vision, Scott could see the Quantum Tunnel in the back of the van start to die down, the colors fading and the tunnel itself slowing down.
He saw the driver’s door open wide, a familiar face stepping out and approaching Lang. Even through the blur, Scott easily recognized his best friend.
“Luis?” Scott wheezed, eyes narrowed.
The man in question blinked rapidly, unable to breathe or perceive who was lying in front of him. He finally convinced himself after a solid two seconds of hard bargaining with his own mind, Luis smiling wide and exclaiming, “Scotty!”
He hugged him. Scott caught his breath, almost coughing but accepting the hug with an equally-strong one. He tried to, at least. Luis’ hug was surprisingly powerful, definitely something Luis wouldn’t have done for Scott after only seeing him a couple days ago. Scott’s worriment only seemed to heighten when Luis broke the hug, gripping Lang’s shoulders with shivering palms. His mustache looked bigger, Scott thought.
Luis shook his head, a slight wetness in his eyes as he observed Scott from top to bottom. “I thought you were dead, man! I mean, I assumed that, considering I haven’t seen you or my van in five years! I mean, I’ve been tracking the van down in my spare time since you borrowed it last and never returned it, but I never even assumed you were in my van this whole time!”
His words started to ramble off, but Scott caught him before it could last another minute and a half. “Wait, five years?!” Scott nearly shouted. The following silence that filled Luis’ voice was already unsettling. It wasn’t natural. Scott shot out a grin, then a breath-filled chuckle as he shook his head. “No… no, you’re messing with me, aren’t you?”
Luis didn’t speak for a full ten seconds. Something was seriously wrong.
Dropping his eyes, Luis bit his lower lip and slowly nodded. He rose up to his feet, hand held to his best friend, and said, “All right, here’s how it all went down…”
The reunited partners in crime drove right out of the storage facility with the security guard giving them a pile of Scott’s belongings and the van to boot, watching them drive off and thanking God he didn’t have to hear Luis’ babbling a second longer. Scott wasn’t given that privilege, taking the passenger’s seat and letting Luis drive, considering Scott still was feeling a bit woozy. Especially after what he witnessed in the Quantum Realm. He didn’t talk about that. He didn’t have the opportunity to when he gave Luis an inch and he took a mile.
Luis went on and on and on. Throughout the entire drive and even into a seemingly-abandoned neighborhood. He explained how he got the call from Dave back at X-Con and shouting how Kurt just vanished from his chair. It was so quick that he barely even had time to call Luis. The line cut off and Luis was forced to drive all the way to X-Con, only to have already missed his close friends. Nothing but dust remained in the office, Dave’s phone lying in it. It didn’t take long for Luis to realize what was going on, what with the dozens of wrecks he had already seen on the drive. He checked the nearest TV and flipped to the news station. He didn’t have to. It was on every station.
The national emergency message. Set on repeat and played for hours and hours.
Luis didn’t waste a second more and drove all the way to Scott’s house, only to find it empty save for a lone, giant ant wickedly rocking on the drums. He tried his best to remember where Scotty had to have been, remembering that Hank Pym, his wife, Hope, and Scott borrowed his van for quantum testing or whatever. Scotty just… didn’t make it clear where they were going to be testing it.
Scott interrupted his rambling, saying, “What about Cassie? Maggie? Jim?”
He responded by saying he checked up with them shortly after he realized he wasn’t going to be finding his van anytime soon. They were all okay. That statement alone was nearly cut off when Scott exhaled a powerful sigh of relief, falling back into the seat and resting a palm over his forehead. Luis continued shortly, saying that whatever happened to Kurt and Dave happened to pretty much half of the entire population. Scott turned to him on that, eyes wide with disbelief. Voice breathless.
“Yeah, man, the government came out after a few weeks and said it was like the Rapture or something,” Luis explained, left hand on the wheel and the right waving about to match his flamboyant descriptions. “But then they corrected that when the Avengers announced that it was really this dude called Thanos. Apparently, he got these crazy-ass stones that have alien powers or whatever and he used them to wipe out half of all life in the universe.”
“Half of all…?” Scott gasped, unable to blink as the information slowly began to process. It must have clicked for him because it soon started to make sense. The pieces of the puzzle were coming together. The reason he didn’t get pulled out of the Quantum Realm was probably because Hank, Janet, and Hope all… “I mean, I knew there was an alien invasion, but it ended! Then Hank, Janet, and Hope put me in the Quantum Tunnel and…”
Scott’s voice began to trail off, his brow hardening when he recounted Luis’ earlier words.
“Wait, you said five years… then you said a few weeks.”
Luis turned away from the road for a second to meet Scott’s eyes. He especially faced the question, when Scott asked, “Luis… how long have I been in the Quantum Realm?”
It was a rare moment to see Luis sigh, especially with sadness laced around his tone. He faced the road again and softly shook his head. “I don’t know how long you’ve been in there, but out here… it’s been five years, Scotty.”
Scott stared forward, laying a palm over his eyes as he fully embraced that revelation and let it sink in. Let it sink deep and long. He fell once more into his seat, groaning weakly, “Five years…”
Luis hit the brakes, Scott leaning forward almost close enough to hit the dashboard. Facing forward to realize how close he had been, Scott was about to chew Luis out for not warning him about the brakes… when he stopped. When his voice left him. When his eyes centered forward out the front windshield and saw the small family of ponies crossing the street.
Ponies.
They crossed the crosswalk that Luis nearly drove through. They waved to Luis with their hooves, silently thanking him for letting them cross, then turned those large, colorful eyes to Scott Lang in the passenger seat. His jaw was agape, breathless and dumbstruck by what he was witnessing. The small filly gazed wondrously to Scott, almost sharing his expression as her father pulled her along with his magic. From his magic horn that shot out from his forehead. Scott followed them slowly, never once breaking his expression until the ponies successfully made it to the opposite sidewalk.
Luis pursed his lips. “I guess I should’ve told you about the refugee crisis, too.”
Scott finally turned that same expression to his friend, finally letting it settle and allowing himself to breathe, blink, and speak again. “You still got time.”
Scott and Luis observed the world. It was a journey that lasted minutes on end, traversing a neighborhood with half of all the houses practically abandoned, overgrown grass and plants overtaking the small pockets of civilization. Missing posters lay crumbled in the streets or attached to the wooden streetlights, all seemingly worn by age and abandoned. A kid on his bike rode along on the bike path, both him and the van shooting past a small group of ponies playing hopscotch. Young ponies at that, the small fillies and colts minding their own business as the kid on the bike sent them a scowl. The mare and stallion from the closest house ordered their children to come inside, a short scuffle for the door following the group of fillies and colts.
Not only that, but they were everywhere. Almost seamlessly integrated into human society. Ponies walked among humans, each side casting the other an uncertain glance before returning to their own business. Some ponies stayed in the houses with their families. Others had jobs, mail ponies delivering stacks of letters from one house to another alongside mailmen. All of it looking so absolutely normal to everyone except for Scott Lang.
He stared out the passenger window, forehead nearly pressed to it, as Luis rambled.
“Ya see, that alien planet that’s still above ours, it’s filled with ponies, Scott. Same kind you ran into a while back. Anyway, the ponies wanted to integrate into our society when we started to do the same. Guess there was a resource crisis first of all, and both worlds kinda needed more farmers to make enough food for everyone. It took a couple years, but soon enough there was a steady flow of refugees from our to world to theirs, and their world to ours. Guess they got more integrated into human society faster than we expected.”
Scott slowly shook his head, eyes latched to a Pegasus repairing a phone line alongside the relaxing repairmen. All of them wearing the same uniform. “This is crazy.”
“You know, that’s what I thought, too, then I tried the Apple Family’s apple cider after they started selling it last year, and man…” Luis paused, breathing in sharply through his nostrils and holding out his right hand in an “okay” sign. “That shit is the bomb. Now, I’m kinda okay with ponies living among us or whatever. I think you’ll get used to it soon.”
“Not… just that, Luis, but…” Scott began to say, shaking his head once more as his eyes returned to the outside world. To all that had changed. “… everything.”
It was several more minutes of rambling before Luis finally quieted down. They passed a memorial site, hundreds of stone pillars erected from the earth and dozens of mourners gazing upon them. Human and pony alike. Scott’s interests were heavily raised, Lang practically pressing his face against the window alongside his open palms just to stare at them all. Luis slowed the van down, shaking his head and sighing, “The Walls of the Vanished. Hundreds in almost every major city. They have millions of names of people who were taken during the Decimation. That’s how your family…”
He stopped. Scott turned around, stared at him with eyes wide and waiting. Almost dreading.
Luis tightened his lips, actually stopping the van near the sidewalk so he could fully turn to his best friend when he said it. When he turned to him, stared into his eyes, and said, “That’s how your family and I found out you were among them.”
It only took a second for Scott to react.
“Get me home.”
He didn’t see any other way for him to properly respond.
Luis drove for a few short minutes, already having been driving Scott to his house but taking that short detour around the memorial site. By the time the van slowed to a halt in the only parking spot available, Scott practically clambered out of his seat and outside, stumbling across the grass and reaching the front door in record timing. Luis cut him off just short, managing to convince Scott… that it was probably best if he knocked first. Better way not to startle her.
Scott agreed. Whatever eventually got him to his daughter. He stood behind Luis as he knocked on the front door, softly and controlled as opposed to what Scott would have most likely done. The following five seconds felt like another five hours, or five years, or however long Scott had been trapped. But it was just five seconds.
It was just five seconds.
Then…
“Uncle Luis! What are you doing here?” a feminine, almost mature voice called out, the brown-haired, young woman stepping out of the shadows with that bright smile joining her. “I thought you were gonna spend the rest of the day looking for your va—?”
Luis stepped aside, revealing Scott.
She stopped just on the other side of the door. Her jaw fell. Refused to close.
Scott stepped forward. Stopped just on the other side of the door. His jaw fell. Refused to close.
She didn’t waste another second longer and pried open the door, taking those short steps outside only to pause once again. No barrier separating them. No tragic news keeping them apart. It was just them, the sixteen-year-old Cassandra Lang and the undeniable face of her father, Scott Lang. Complete shock was plastered on both of their expressions, then the break, followed by the painful tears escaping Cassandra’s eyes as she lifted a shaking hand towards him.
Rested it on his cheek. She cried out, knowing he was real.
“D… D-Dad?”
Scott felt his heart drop when she said that. He raised his hand opposite to hers, laid it on her own cheek. “… Cassie?” he whispered.
She hadn’t heard him call her that in so long. Cassandra cried out once more, leaping forward and practically strangling the father she thought was dead in a hug. The father everyone told her was dead. Scott slowly eased into her embrace, still somewhat flabbergasted to actually be holding his teenage daughter when just a day ago… he was holding his little Cassie. His little Peanut.
Together, they broke, Scott’s hands resting over her tear-covered cheeks as their eyes met. He saw those eyes, knowing with certainty—right then and there—that it was her. He smiled through his own tears, gasping for air, trying to breathe again.
“You’ve gotten so big.”
It was all he could say. The only thing that came to his mind.
That, and wondering what to do next in a world five years later.
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With that image of humans and ponies living together, that makes me wonder what kind of movies, books and video games would be made mixing both... *imagines Fleur de Lys as actress in the role of James Bond's next coworker*
(which reminded me of this comic)
Kinda fitting that the hope for the future comes on Cap's birthday.
And as a non-American, what is up for me is I bought a box of ice cream sandwiches. So me and Scott both had good days.
Alright, now....time for the heist!
Interesting!
A bit less depressing than the movie or trailer showed
Cap, I think it's time to gather the crew again.
And Luis is alive, now they may actually stand a chance against Thanos, before the portals.
2014 Thanos: Where are the stones?
*Bongos start playing as Cap, Tony, Thor, Twilight, Rainbow and Rarity step aside, revealing Luis.*
Luis: You see man, thats complicated. It all started when Scotty paid a me a visit...
Getting this AND season 3 of Stranger Things in one day. NICE!
I really like the two societies integrating, but something seeming to be off. As if that friendship is frail... like the friendships of curtain characters we know
Yay! Luis is still alive!
Wait, Grubber still got snapped away...DAMMIT.
Kinda interesting to see the pony/human integration. I wonder if there's a pony community in New Asgard.
I see we have (albeit understandably) retconned the rat. Also a bit disappointed that the sequence where Scott tries to find Cassie's name on the memorial got excised; that was the most terrified a non-horror movie has made me feel in quite a while.
At the end of the day, though, I think Luis's presence more than makes up for that. :)
Now it's time for Scott to realize that he might have the keys to saving the universe...
Nice twist, having Luis alive.
If they had had him in Endgame for that scene, with him recapping to Scott what had happened five years ago in his own words, that would have added some much needed humor to a depressing scene.
Happy 4th of July, JD!
9714308
That would be AWESOME!!! Her and Daniel Craig would have such great chemistry.
Ok so this proves that Thanos’ plan ultimately failed and it was confirmed that animals were killed along with everybody else. So Thanos snapped half the resources along with the population meaning his snap did absolutely nothing to help with the resource shortage and he killed billions for no reason. I hope someone points that out to him in this version because it would be the ultimate victory. Not only do they undo the snap, but they prove his destiny was wrong and ultimately pointless.
I’m going to miss the actress who played her daughter in the last two Ant man movies. She was adorable.
It’s interesting to see how ponies have integrated into human society.
I also love how Luis calls apple family cider the bomb.
Happy 4th to you to and damn Luis doesn't fail to make us laugh
9714506
Now I wish there was a fanfic about the 2 interacting, as actors in a 007 movie.
https://pin.it/2wmt5n3smf4mz6
This was incredible. Definitely worth a read.
Scott made it out of the Quantum Realm and reunites with his pal Luis, bringing him up to speed on all that he missed out on in the past five years. I can only just imagine the feeling running through Scott's head. To have come back and learn that five years have gone by, which had only been hours for Scott, and half of all life had been erased and that Earth and Equus are now forced to adapt to a new society that is already on the brink of collapse.
At least this time when Scott came back, his best friend was there to see him. But more importantly, he was able to see his daughter Cassie again, who thankfully was spared from the Snap and is now a teenager at this point, and Cassie herself is just so happy to see her Dad again after so long thinking she had lost him. A shame though that Scott never got to see his daughter grow up. But he'll make up for it by bringing to the Avengers the key that will fix this whole mess.
SAN FRANCISCO
9714308 There's already been movies made with pony actors in this five year timeline.
9714314 That's the way to do it, brother.
9714317 Boom.
9714332 The depression ends!
9714368 And then they win. It's over at that point. Luis is the MCU equivalent to Shaggy.
9714372 Oh, I'm binging Stranger Things the rest of this week.
9714390 Couple other creatures there, but definitely some ponies, as well.
9714444 Yeah, I wasn't a fan of the rat. Honestly, Luis saving Scott (and pretty much the universe) makes much more sense.
9714447 Happy Fifth now!
9714539 I think Feige said that the resources weren't wiped out, but I don't know. I wrote it so ALL life lost half.
9714783 Luis is our savior.
9714788 He's that torch in the darkness.
9715019 Scott and Luis are the saviors of the universe!
9715401
9715587
For now
9715587
Be prepared for COMMUNISM
9715587
Did I say I always have liked the idea of Fleur de Lys as a spy or combative?
9715587
I think while he didn’t say the resources were totally wiped out I think either him or the Russo’s confirmed that animals were affected by the snap. So at least the resources from the animals have been destroyed.
What awesome character decvelopment you've given Scott/Ant-Man here!
God, I love Luis.
When u saw Endgame, I was as relieved as Scott and Cassie were when they found out both weren't dead.
Luis saves Scott, and the whole universe by extension. While this story is barreling along, I've barely recorded 5 chapters of my reading of it. Geez, have I got work to do...
9716219 This story is going in a different direction from Infinity War and Endgame.
9716478 Take as much time as you need!
Anyone else hear about how they almost had Hawkeye go back to Sokovia and save Quicksilver?
(Not sure if I mentioned this before)
I'm curious if something like that will happen for this story.
9716553
I think I made it clear how OCD I am about continuity. I just hope things work out for all we saw in Endgame.
I’m sure others on this site are suckers for continuity as well.
Having Groot alive was a given; you didn’t give him Stormbreaker in the Infinity War part.
😂 man i wish Luis was in endgame
Luis being the one to accidentally free Scott from the Quantum Realm instead of a random rat is a nice touch. It is nice seeing Luis survived The Snap and he managed to catch Scott up on everything that happened (in his own unique way). Also, Scott's reunion with his grown up daughter will never not be heartwarming.