(MCU) Arcs Collide: Chapter 23 – Hook, Line, Sinker

Chapter 23 – Hook, Line, Sinker

Summary: Tony and Hope going into the Quantom Realm. They sure find what they are looking for and a hell of a lot more.

“Remind me why the hell you two are the ones going?” Hank grumbled.

Hope, now dressed in her newly designed and updated Wasp suit, rolled her eyes and answered in a dry tone, clearly tired of the conversation. “We’ve already talked about this. We don’t know if there’s someone or something besides Mom waiting for us down there. Tony and I have the most combat experience.”

Hank frowned and tried to argue, “She might not recognize the two of you and panic. I’d be a friendly face.”

Tony had to stop himself from snorting, resisting the urge to make a jab like, ‘Even your wife would panic at your grumpy face.’

Hank, not noticing Tony’s internal struggle, offered, “Me and Tony should go.”

Scott raised his hand awkwardly before saying in a hesitant tone, “Umm, should we send both our Quantum experts? I mean, I can fix the system if something goes wrong, but I have no idea about all that atomic stuff.”

As she checked the stingers Tony designed and added to her suit as weapons, Hope said, “Scott’s right. We need you here to operate the tunnel, Dad.”

“I don’t like it,” was the only thing Hank seemed able to come up with.

Tony stood in an Iron Man suit created specifically for this mission, which he had code-named "Quantum Traveler." The suit had all its usual functions, with two key differences. First was the color scheme—while the deep red remained, albeit a few shades darker, the gold had been replaced by black to resemble the Ant-Man suits. Hopefully, Aunt Janet would recognize it, and things would go more smoothly. The second difference was the Pym Particles stored around the protected area of the arc reactor.

Up until now, Tony had stayed out of the argument, his helmet on as he ran final scans on all systems. When he finally got the all-clear, Tony let the helmet fold back into the suit and spoke loudly, “Noted, Grumpy. Now we better get a move on.”

Hope gave a short nod, and Hank sighed in resignation. As Tony began heading toward the launch platform, Hank caught his arm.

When Tony looked at the old man, he saw an expression he never thought he’d see on his face: pleading. “I know I’ve already asked far too much of you, Tony, especially after the way I treated you, but please keep Hope safe. If you can bring Janet back, that’d be ideal, but I can’t lose my little girl too.”

Tony gave the man a firm nod, silently making the promise. Hank’s face hardened again as he let go of Tony and walked toward the computer to start typing sequences.

Tony stepped onto the platform next to his childhood friend. Hope broke the silence, her voice full of wonder. “We’re going to travel through a portal to another planet, basically.”

Tony shrugged and simply commented, “Been there, done that.”

Hope frowned at him. “I guess you have. Any advice?”

Before Tony could answer, they heard Scott yelling over the sound of the tunnel powering on, “We’re ready in ten seconds!”

Tony smirked and answered Hope’s question. “It sucks.”

Hope snorted at his not-so-helpful advice and replied, “Great to know.”

The tunnel in front of them began to glow in different colors, creating a gravitational pull toward its core. Luckily, they had accounted for this, and the platform they were standing on was magnetic, keeping them in place until it was time.

Tony felt his entire body stiffen, but outwardly he asked calmly, “Ready for it, Honeybee?” before his helmet closed around his head.

Hope took a deep breath before replying just as calmly, “Ready as you are, metal-head.” Her own helmet snapped shut.

And with that, the magnetic pad deactivated, and the two of them were sucked in.

Sometimes, Tony really hated being right. He didn’t know how long they were pulled inside this colorful tunnel, but it was certainly not a pleasant experience. It felt like his bones had suddenly turned to rubber, and someone was trying to see how far they could stretch them.

Hope didn’t seem to be faring much better. Tony tried to take another breath and was prepared to wait a little longer, but then all the colors vanished, and suddenly he and Hope were in a free fall through a dark night sky.

It took Tony a single moment to gather himself and fire up the thrusters so he could control his movements. Beside him, Hope’s suit sprouted a pair of wings, allowing her to float in the air as well.

Tony moved closer to her, though he spoke through the comms, “Are you alright?”

Hope let out a groan before replying simply, “You were right. It sucked.”

Tony snorted and then tried to call his baby girl. “Fri, are you still with us?”

After a long moment without a reply, Tony released a heavy sigh and then switched his comms to a special channel he’d created. “Hank? Scott? Can you hear me?”

Again, no reply. Tony groaned. He had hoped for better, but he knew the probability wasn’t on his side. He switched the comms back to his channel with Hope and said, “No response from the other channels or Friday.”

Hope muttered a curse before replying, “Then it’s just us. Do you have a lock on the signal?”

This entire plan hinged on the hope that the signal Scott picked up over a year ago was still active and detectable. The tunnel was supposed to use the signal to send them into the general region of its origin.

Tony looked at the screen in his HUD and found the signal was still broadcasting. “We have a lock. It’s a couple dozen kilometers to the west.”

Hope gave him a determined nod, and Tony turned and began flying toward the location of the signal’s origin. He made sure to keep his speed low enough for Hope to keep up with him.

Tony looked down at the vast landscape beneath them. It mostly looked like a desert, but there were a few spots with what appeared to be grass and oddly shaped plants bearing some kind of fruit. Tony had a good idea of what it could be, which raised the probability that his aunt was still alive.

He then looked at the sky. It was mostly dark, but every few seconds, a road of color would light up the horizon. Tony wasn’t sure what he had been expecting, but did this meet his expectations? Not really.

“What do you think about the land, Tony?” Hope’s voice came through the comms, cutting his musings short.

Tony allowed his eyes to scan what lay beneath him again before answering, “It looks like somebody built some kind of farm to sustain themselves.”

Hope’s voice was… well, hopeful. “Mom?”

Tony didn’t want to give her too much false hope. After all, there was a chance it wasn’t Aunt Janet who did this, or if it was, she might have died already, and the farm was just still here for now.

But before he could answer her, he noticed a large cave not far from their position, with some light coming out of the entrance. His voice was calm. “I’m still not sure, but I see a shelter, and it looks like somebody’s home.”

Hope’s voice turned emotionless, and she said, “Advance with caution.”

Tony gave her a thumbs-up and began to land a couple hundred meters away from the entrance.

When he touched the ground, Hope was beside him a moment later. They looked at each other through their helmets, and it sounded like Hope was about to say something when someone marched out of the cave with an odd weapon raised and ready.

The person was a woman with long white hair tied behind her. She looked to be around Hank’s age and wore brown rags all over her body, with a pair of goggles around her neck. Tony decided to start running facial recognition on this woman with his downloaded database.

The woman was glaring at them before she began shouting and aiming her weapon more directly at him. “Who are you? Why did he send you?”

Okay, now Tony was confused. Who the hell was she talking about? Was it Hank? No, she was still broadcasting the signal, probably hoping he would rescue her at some point. No, there was someone here who scared her, and she was expecting that man to send an army just for her. It became a priority to get the hell out of here—they could try again another day with more people on their side.

Before Tony could voice this, a beep in his helmet let him know the scan was finished, and the result was… oh shit. “It’s her.”

Hope’s head snapped from the woman to Tony, and she asked sharply, “Are you sure?”

Tony didn’t move his eyes from his aunt as he responded dryly, “As sure as facial recognition identification can be.”

Hope’s head snapped back to the weapon-wielding woman, and she called, “Mom!” starting to walk toward her.

The white-haired woman turned her weapon sharply toward the Wasp-themed Avenger, calling out in suspicion, “What did you say?”

Hope opened her helmet, allowing it to disappear into her suit. Her face now visible, she raised her hands slowly and said softly, “Mom, it’s me, Hope.”

Aunt Janet stared at her face for a long moment before her eyes began to shine, and she lowered her weapon, calling out, “Hope, my baby. It’s really you.”

Hope got close enough to her mother to put her hands gently on the older woman’s shoulders. “Yes, Mom. I finally found you.”

Tears started to fall from Aunt Janet’s eyes. She cupped Hope’s face in her shaking hands and said in a low voice, “You’ve grown so much.”

Hope began to shed a few tears, and Tony might have joined them, but the tension he felt kept growing. So, reluctantly, he allowed his own helmet to collapse back and stepped forward. He pointed at the weapon the older woman was carrying and pointed out, “It looks like you were expecting someone else.”

As if coming out of a trance, Aunt Janet’s eyes snapped to him. She took a moment to look at him. She let go of Hope and stepped closer to him, her eyes narrowing in confusion as she asked, “Howard? Is that you?” Tony flinched and was about to correct her when her eyes widened. More tears began leaking from her eyes, and a soft smile spread across her face as she spoke again. “No, you have your mother’s eyes. My little genius.”

Tony couldn’t fight off the small smile on his face as he responded gently, “It’s good to see you again, Auntie.”

Aunt Janet seemed to shake herself back to reality and asked sharply, “Do the two of you have any idea where you are now?!”

Hope seemed to freeze from the change in tone, but Tony was used to situations like this and replied with his trademark smirk, “I know we ain’t in Kansas anymore.”

Aunt Janet seemed to fight the smile threatening to spread on her lips before she simply stated, “Still with that wit and big mouth of yours, Tony?”

The older woman returned to reality once again and asked, “How did you even find me?”

Tony frowned; something was clearly wrong here. But before he could point it out, Hope was already explaining with a smile, “Scott—he’s my… well, it doesn’t matter now. Anyway, he went subatomic for a moment and caught your signal. Dad and Tony built a tunnel to get you out, and we followed the original signal to find you.”

How could she not automatically assume it was her signal? Unless… His fears were confirmed when the woman’s eyes went wide, and she immediately exclaimed, “My communication systems were destroyed when I landed here. I couldn’t send any signal—the only one who could…”

She trailed off, but Tony jumped on this and demanded, “Who?! Who sent us the signal? Who wanted us here, and why? Who are you so afraid of?”

She looked Tony in the eye. Her own eyes were wide with panic, and her face was pale as she answered in a fearful tone, “The Conqueror. And if he wants you here, it’s for one reason: as a means to escape this realm and return to his world so he can restart his war.”

Well, damn. That sounds sinister as all hells, and he had enough on his fucking plate without dealing with this shit.

Sharply turning to Hope, he ordered, “We grab her and leave! Now!”

But suddenly, a huge energy blast hit the top of the cave. The shockwave sent all three of them to the ground.

When his head stopped spinning, he got back to his feet only to see two very high-tech ships—probably more advanced than the ones in Wakanda—slowly landing on the ground as their hanger doors began to open.

Tony looked around for the girls, calling, “Aunt Janet? Hope? Are you okay?”

“We’re fine, Tony. We were a bit disoriented from the shockwave, but now we’re ready,” came Hope’s response from his left.

Tony looked behind him to the left and saw both mother and daughter stepping out of the dust and moving closer to him.

He noticed they both were wide-eyed and looking over his shoulder, probably noticing the enemy approaching. Hope entered a fighting stance, and Aunt Janet raised her weapon.

Tony turned back toward what looked like a hundred approaching soldiers armed with some kind of energy weapons. Without looking back, he called toward Hope, “Wasp, we have at least a hundred hostiles incoming. Chitauri-level weapons and armor.”

But before Tony could continue, another lone figure began floating down toward the ground, calling out gleefully, “Well, well, look who we have here.”