And lo, there came a day unlike any other, when the mightiest of the Avengers were laid low, and the days of teaming for humanities greatest champions were no more! Yet those days were short, for soon the call went out once more, and the best, the brightest, the most powerful were brought together once again, gathering ‘round the rallying cry of

Avengers Assemble!

#5

The Search for Ant-Man

"This is Trish Tilby reporting to you live from chopper 11 high above the Brooklyn Navy yard where a battle is raging between the NYPD and the forces of the terrorist group Hydra. The police are falling back even as they are calling in reinforcements. I- Wait! Someone else is coming! It’s- It can’t be, it’s the Mighty Avengers!"

As Tilby speaks, Iron Man, Thor, Wonder-Man, Ms.Marvel and a Quinjet with the rest of Earth’s Mightiest heroes roars past her copter, and her broadcast is suddenly interrupted by Iron Mans voice.

"Chopper 11, this is Iron Man of the Avengers, you are in a restricted flight zone, leave immediately, or I will set you down myself. Get out of here now, this is the only warning you’ll get."

Trish turns towards her pilot then speaks as the chopper hovers in place. ""Leo get us out of here now, as much as I hate to admit it we are in danger here."

Leo nods and banks the chopper away as a large blue robot suddenly is thrown haphazardly where they were a moment before, a mighty uru hammer impaled in its stomach area.

"Verily foul Dreadnaught! Thou art mighty indeed, but in truth thou art nothing when compared to the power of Thor!" The thunder God roars as his hammer returns to his hand.

"Stay sharp Thor!" Captain America orders, "There are literally hundreds of these troopers and this contingent of Dreadnaughts is only going to make things more difficult." As Cap speaks he throws a powerful side thrust kick into a green suited Hydra troopers jaw, snapping the mans head backwards. Simultaneously Cap hurls his shield with his left hand. It snaps into one trooper, then another before returning to his outstretched hand, where hurls it again at a slightly sharper angle and it hits a Dreadnaught in the neck, decapitating it easily.

Nearby Iron Man fires his repulsor rays into a Dreadnaught, shredding it as he smashes it backwards, into a dozen Hydra troopers.

Forty feet away on the wide open outdoor dock area, between dumpsters and empty freight containers, a Dreadnaught towers over the Scarlet Witch from behind as she unleashes her power into the ground in front of her, at a group of Hydra soldiers, and suddenly the ground becomes a tarry mess, entrapping the troopers. She never sees the Dreadnaught behind her as it raises its steely hands above its head, preparing to obliterate the unsuspecting Witch! As it brings its hands down, a ghostly green, yellow and red figure raises out of the ground, suddenly becoming solid. The Dreadnaughts fists shatter when it impacts with the Vision, it’s steely limbs breaking like glass upon the Visions ultra dense form!

"No harm will befall the Scarlet Witch while I am near her, robot." As he speaks, The Vision unleashes his solar vision into the ruined robots chest, obliterating it.

Ms. Marvel and Wonder Man tear through the Dreadnaughts quickly, pounding them to scrap metal, as nearby Hawkeye, the Beast along with Yellowjacket and the Wasp attack the standard Hydra troopers, the insect Avengers using their energy blasts, and Hawkeye using explosive arrows!

"Hey Beast, you okay over there?" Hawkeye asks Hank McCoy.

"Aye aye, Hawkeye! I’m doin’ fine, big guy!" The Beast replies as he ricochets from one shock trooper to the next like a hyper-kinetic super ball, knocking a dozen troops unconscious with his prodigious strength and awe inspiring agility!

"Hee hee" he laughs as he bops the last trooper in front of him to the ground with the bottom of his fist. "I love it when a plan comes together."

"What plan, you hairy stuffed animal?" Hawkeye laughs, "We just came in here and took ‘em down, Avengers style, yeah baby!"

"Now comes the hard part," Yellowjacket announces, growing to his full height.

"What’s that YJ?" Beast asks.

"What else Fuzzy Wuzzy? We storm their underground base o’course." Hawkeye replies smirking.

Suddenly the ground beneath their feet begins to vibrate and shake with tremendous power, as the dock beneath the feet of the Vision and the Scarlet Witch disintegrates. The Vision scoops up his wife and whisks her to safety amid explosions of water thirty feet high all around them!

"Take to the air Avengers." Cap orders, as Ms Marvel scoops up the Beast and Iron Man grabs Cap amidst the rumbling and vibrating ground.

"Hey! What about me?" Hawkeye shouts, when suddenly he sees the world around him grow much larger, as a yellow and blue clad arm scoops him up and deposits him on the back of a (Seemingly) giant flying ant!

"What the hell? Pym, you shrunk me!" Hawkeye blurts out in mock annoyance.

"What’d you expect, Barton. You want me to carry you? Not likely. And watch how you treat Matilda, she has orders to fly a hundred feet up and buck you off if you give her a hard time." Pym laughs as he flies away. Hawkeye grabs the neck of the ant beneath him tightly as it climbs above the chaos below.

Suddenly, bursting from the surface of the water a huge vessel climbs skywards!

"Damn, that thing is the size of the SHIELD Helicarrier!" Iron Man blurts out.

"Aye, and it cannot be allowed to escape. To my side Avengers, today we slay a giant!" Thor roars as he rockets skywards towards the underside of the escaping Hydra vessel.

"Beware of weapons fire, that thing has literally hundreds of weapons emplacements." Iron Man advises.

"Aye but they are the ones who need heed OUR weapons, friend Iron Man. Weapons such as mine own mighty Mjolnir!" Thor Hurls his hammer at the ship smashing into and through it magnificently, as the hammer enters the bottom of the vessel and exits the surface of it almost instantly, as several loud explosions rock the ship.

"You heard the man, Avengers, Let ‘em have it! Avengers Assemble!" Cap roars, as Ms. Marvel, Iron Man, Yellowjacket, The Vision, and Thor all unleash energies at the underside of the huge ship, rocking it in the sky. Then the Scarlet witch concentrates, as eldritch energies leap from her mutant hands, enveloping the ships engines, which instantly and against all probabilities, suddenly have their fuel turned to putty. The ship drops like a rock into the water.

"Good work Avengers, Let’s help the Police with the clean up." Cap orders as harbor patrol boats immediately head towards the sinking ship.

Three hours later...

The Avengers return to the mansion and some well-deserved rest.

"I’ll be outside." Yellowjacket begins, exiting the mansion almost as soon as he enters.

"Where are you going, lover-boy?" Jan asks.

"I’m starting the search for Ant-Man. I have a few ideas, but this may take a while. Her may not even be out there; he may really be dead. Who knows? But I want to get this over with."

Janet Van Dyne grabs his arm and holds it tightly for an instant, stopping him from exiting the mansion. She is all business, reflecting the seriousness of the situation, and once again looking for all the world like the Avengers chairwoman she was on more then one occasion. "Hank. Wait."

"What is it Jan?" He turns towards her, surprise in his eyes at the way she stopped him.

"Why are you running out? Rest a little while. We had a stressful day and a half here. Whatever happened to Scott is not going to be solved in the next ten minutes."

"Jan, I have to do this. I want to find out conclusively what happened to Ant-Man."

"No, you want to stay away from me a few minutes longer." She answers authoritatively.

"Is that what you really think? My God woman, I stayed by your side when I thought you were dying, and I’ve stayed by your side since. What, now you’re giving me grief because of the Hawkeye thing?"*

* See last issue

"No. Yes. Maybe. I-I don’t know. Y-you hit him so hard, when no one was expecting it. I’m half expecting-"

"You have got to be kidding me. Do you really think I’m going to hit you now? Let’s get one thing totally and definitively straight Janet Van Dyne, I love you. I hit you once, remember that word, Jan. Once in all our years together when I was not in my right mind. It has never happened again and will never happen again. I’m not some crazy person, and I am not a wife beater. I am a super-hero. I hit people for a living, if you want to boil things down to brass tacks, and for that matter so do you. I have promised you over and over again that it will never happen again, and it will not. I would rather die first. What happened with Hawkeye was perhaps something I shouldn’t have done, but it’s not the same situation, and I understand what happened there now with Wanda’s explanation. Do I regret hitting Clint? No, not really. He was my friend; he should not have been having those thoughts about my wife, even if she is my ex-wife now. But I understand how you were both pushed into that situation by Chthon. I also understand, like Wanda explained, that there was some sort of fascination there on both your parts, and Chthon just made that flare into something bigger, for its own demonic delight. You were both to blame for what happened, but I’m forgetting all about it. I said all I have to say on this Janet. The punch I hit Clint with was still well deserved as far as I’m concerned, and I’m sure the rift between us will mend, and soon. Don’t turn this into another rift between us. I love you."

He leans forwards and kisses her on the cheek then walks out the mansion’s door. Around the corner, leaning against the wall, and listening intently, Clint Barton grimaces at the sound of the door shutting behind Hank. He shakes his head, and walks back to his room, deep in thought.

Outside, Yellowjacket reaches into a small compartment on his belt and removes a tiny device, that suddenly grows to full size in his gloved hands. It is a scanner of some type, and for long minutes he plays it over the square of ground where Jack of hearts had seemingly killed Ant-Man.

"This is no good." He murmurs to himself. "It’s already to long ago. They would have dissipated already."

"What would have Henry?" A hollow voice asks. Yellowjacket turns towards the sound of the voice, seeing the Vision and the Scarlet Witch approach him, hand in hand.

"Hello Vision, Wanda. Pym particles. I’m scanning for Pym particles."

"Ah I believe I see. You have deduced that Ant-Man may have shrunken himself out of harms way to safety when Jack of Hearts exploded."

"Why not? I did just the same thing a few years back when Spider-Man and I teamed up against a villain named Equinox the thermal dynamic man. He exploded a fuel truck, trying to kill me. When the truck blew up, I shrunk as fast as possible."

"You believe he did the same? Interesting, and completely plausible."

"Yes Vision, but the problem I’m having with all of this is that my Pym particle scanner cannot find any traces of Pym particles in the area. Its resolution is not high enough. The concentration may have been great enough back a month ago, but not today." He sighs, then continues, "I suppose I’ll have to come up with something else to try and track him."

"Wait Henry." Wanda asks. "Let me see your device." He hands it to her, and she floats her hand across its surface, as her hand glows from within. "Try it now."

Yellowjacket curiously takes the device and tries it again, still finding nothing, but he continues to walk the area he ascertained Ant-Man and Jack of Hearts were standing in when Jack exploded.

Suddenly the small device beeps loudly, and in a surprised look he stares at the Vision and the Witch, then back at his scanner. "A large concentration of Pym particles, right here, Wanda what did you do to the scanner? I crossed this very spot five times already and found nothing."

"I made it... better." She smiles.

"But that’s impossi-" He stops and smiles back at her. "But that’s what you do. You make the impossible and improbable happen. Thanks Wanda. I owe you one. Lets get the rest of the team together."

Fifteen minutes later...

"So that’s what I was able to discover. There was a large amount of Pym particles in that one spot, like he used every bit of the gas he had, all at once."

"You don’t use gas to shrink anymore, right Hank?" Cap asks.

"No I haven’t for quite some time. Jan and I have Pym particles in our bloodstream that we command mentally, sort of like ordering one leg in front of the other to walk. It’s not something we really need to think about consciously. But Ant-Man still needed Pym particles in a gaseous state."

"So how do we retrieve him, if he’s even there now? Wherever there may be." The Beast asks.

"We’re going to have to go in and find him." Yellowjacket answers.

"What?" Iron Man replies, genuinely shocked. "We all have to shrink down to some sub atomic level to find him? Is that what you’re suggesting Hank?"

"Yes. I have it all worked out. I’ll release enough Pym particles from a tank all at once, and shrink us all down to the level of microcosm where I believe him to be. It’ll be painless and harmless shellhead, believe me, but I really think the full team should be there in case we run into something unexpected."

"Agreed" Cap replies. "This is one of our own, people. Lets go find him and bring him home. How much time do we have before you’re prepared, Hank?"

"An hour, two at most. If Beast and Iron Man could assist, it may be shorter"

"No problem Avenger, lets get to it." Iron Man offers.

Forty-five minutes later all eleven Avengers stand ready in one of the sub basement labs.

"This will be very easily done, heroes. I release the gas, we all shrink. We should be in a sub atomic universe on exactly the same world as Ant-Man landed. We’ll just have to find him."

"This should be fun." Hawkeye quips.

"Lets do it people." Wonder Man ads.

"All right, get ready, here we go." Pym hits a button, and the room around them instantly seemingly grows large, then disappears from sight.

"Whoa, this is wild." The Wasp observes.

"Yep, like ‘Fantastic Voyage’, only better." The Beast replies.

"Get ready team we seem to be slowing in our descent." Cap announces.

"We are. We’re about to even out with our surroundings. We’re about to become in phase with everything around us in 3, 2, 1 NOW!"

As Yellowjacket finishes his sentence everything around them come immediately into sharp focus, as they find themselves in a lush jungle, surrounded by sounds of unfamiliar wildlife.

"That was...interesting." Wonder Man speaks first.

"You’re telling me." Ms. Marvel replies. "I hope I never have to do that again. I think I left my stomach about seven realities up thataway." She points upwards as she speaks.

"We’re being watched." The Beast announces quietly.

"Are you sure Hank?" Cap asks him while scanning around them.

The Beast points at his ears. "They don’t call me ‘The Beast’ for nothing Cap-O."

"He’s right, Cap." Iron Man interjects. "My systems have just come back on line the shock of shrinking knocked just about everything offline, until just now when about fifty percent of it came back up. There are people all around us in the brush. Lots of them. Weapons seem very primitive, but I suggest we try not to hurt any of them."

"Noted Iron Man. Let’s find a few. Iron Man, Vision, you both are basically indestructible, and lets not let them know what Thor and Wonder Man can do. You two take point. Find us a few of the natives."

But before they can move, the Avengers are suddenly surrounded by an army of purple skinned, loin clothed warriors holding spears, all pointed at the Avengers.

"Peace warriors, we mean thee no harm." The Mighty Thor intones.

Surprisingly, the leader of the warriors replies in English, "You come with us. We bring you to King. King decide your fate."

Cap and Iron Man exchange looks, as the team stands tensely ready to attack.

"Okay, we’ll go with you, but only because we want to meet your king and ask him a few questions of our own." Cap replies.

"You give us your weapons, now." The warrior orders, grasping for Thor’s Hammer, while another reaches for Caps shield.

"No, we’re coming with you as a courtesy, not as captives. We’re looking for a friend, and we’re willing to treat you as friends. But don’t push your luck, Mister. Now take us to your King."

The warrior looks at Captain America through narrowed eyes then confers with two others near him, before nodding in agreement.

"You come with us, we take you to King. He decide if you friends or more enemies from other world."

"What?" Yellowjacket asks. "What enemies?"

"Others come, not long ago. They attack with weapons, kill many. Take many more away. King come and save us. Now we fight for him against those who came before."

"Take us to him." Cap replies, with authority.

The Avengers and those around them begin a trek through the jungle. A mile later they stop at a large wooden gate. A horn is blown from the inside as men swing the fifty-foot tall gates open, and the group enters the village.

"Come to palace. King this way." The warrior leader proclaims, pulling aside an animal hide used as a doorway to a wood and stone edifice. Inside dirt floors make their trek silent to the throne, a wooden chair sitting some ten feet above the floor. It is empty, but the man who readily occupies it stands staring out a hole in the wall that acts as a window.

"King, I bring newcomers. They say they are friends. You decide." The man backs away as the King turns towards them and the Avengers as one exhibit shock!

"Ant-Man???" The Beast blurts out as Scott Lang stares back at them emotionlessly, his face covered by a month old beard, and beneath his thin robes aspects of his Ant-Man uniform showing through.

"Scott! Man are we glad to see you!" Hawkeye offers, rushing from the crowd to face Scott Lang.

Suddenly Ant-Man reaches out quickly and punches Hawkeye in the jaw, dropping him like a bag of garbage. "I do not know these gaudily dressed people, they must be spies sent by the enemy. Kill them all!" He commands...

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