Blaine was deeply curious about those two Pym Disks. The Hunter system sold something similar, but it was insanely expensive—five billion apiece—and disposable.
There was another reason Pym never gave Hope the original Ant-Man suit. That reason was Hope's mother.
As one of the few people who had ever worn a Pym-designed combat suit, Hope's mother had tested it herself. The suit had certain buttons—buttons you absolutely should not press. Blaine didn't know the technical explanation. It was high-tech, that was all he knew.
If pressed, the wearer's body would shrink endlessly. Ants, bees, insects—none of them mattered. Once you triggered that button, you would descend to the subatomic level. That degree of shrinking was beyond human comprehension.
The subatomic realm was smaller than bacteria. A virus—barely visible under an electron microscope—might look like a titan in that world. You could simply walk a step and be swallowed whole by bacteria or viruses.
And once someone entered the subatomic level, that was it. They couldn't come back. Pym's wife had gone subatomic and never returned in all these years. Blaine suspected that was one of the core reasons Pym refused to let Hope become Ant-Man.
There had actually been a small episode leading up to Scott and his crew breaking in to steal the Yellowjacket suit and destroy all the Cross Tech data tonight—one that only Pym, Hope, Scott, Blaine, and one more person knew.
"It seems the Civil War isn't far off," Blaine murmured to himself.
The small episode was this: to ensure Scott's plan succeeded, he needed to break into Tony Stark's father's old warehouse and steal a signal converter. Blaine didn't know the exact function of the device. Honestly, he suspected the entire subplot existed just to set up Civil War. Otherwise, why would Scott need to steal something so seemingly useless?
And because of that theft, Scott ended up running into one of the Avengers—Falcon—at the old warehouse, which was now the Avengers' base.
As for Falcon… well, in Captain America's story, he was basically the perpetual third wheel. So how impressive was Ant-Man? Let's put it this way—three moves later, Scott slipped into the mechanical wings and knocked Falcon out of the air. He grabbed the converter and escaped cleanly.
As Blaine was piecing together Pym, Scott, Cross, Ant-Man, Tony, and the rest, he suddenly realized a helicopter had risen beneath him. With his sharp senses, he noticed a swarm of flying ants trailing it.
Cross had clearly anticipated Pym and Hope's plans. He had even predicted Scott would come to steal the suit today. Everything had been arranged long in advance. This helicopter was probably part of that setup. Unfortunately, the HYDRA agents on board had simply become collateral damage.
On the ground, a tank—enlarged by Pym—burst out from the explosion. Thankfully, there weren't many people on the street at night; otherwise, casualties would've been inevitable.
The helicopter circled the Cross Tech building a few times before flying off. Blaine could easily imagine Cross's face right now.
Even though everything was within Cross's expected parameters, he clearly never thought his old mentor, Dr. Pym, would be ruthless enough to blow up his entire building.
After all, it was a company Cross had built from scratch over many years. Claiming he felt no pain over its destruction would be a lie.
"Damn it. Why am I even thinking so much? My job is to make that bastard Cross die painfully enough to regret being alive."
Although Cross Tech had already been blown up ahead of schedule, Blaine still had to personally kill Cross.
He wasn't worried about Cross escaping. Back in the room earlier, Blaine had planted a spiritual seed in his soul.
Guided by it, Blaine turned and flew toward Cross.
Because he'd been distracted thinking, Blaine arrived just in time to witness, yet again, two Ant-Men fighting—Scott as the first-generation Ant-Man, and Cross as the first-generation Yellowjacket.
The Yellowjacket suit definitely looked cooler. It had wings, articulated stingers, and a mask that made Cross look fierce and imposing. Just seeing it made it obvious how ambitious he was.
Scott, on the other hand, wore that old, clunky, "Red Dead Redemption"-looking suit. Not exactly ugly, but definitely bulky.
Still, Scott had been trained by Hope—a black belt in taekwondo and his future girlfriend. Compared to Cross, a research-obsessed nerd with no combat skills, Scott had the advantage physically.
Cross naïvely believed that wearing a high-tech suit made him invincible. Even Tony wouldn't dare think like that.
Sure enough, as Blaine approached, he watched Scott suddenly enlarge and swat Cross away with the precision of a Chinese table tennis champion. Cross crashed into a streetlamp. The weak electric current jolted him so hard he trembled uncontrollably. He wouldn't be moving properly for a while.
"You've got to be kidding me… don't blame me for stepping in," Blaine muttered helplessly at Scott. This had been his mission. He came here ready to do serious work, and now he was just a spectator. And the fight wasn't even thrilling. Blaine felt like an old man watching a cricket match—seeing the two men go at it so energetically that even he, the audience, almost clapped along.
Drip~~Woo~~Drip~~Woo~~Drip~~Woo~~
Just as Blaine prepared to descend, a shrill siren wailed again.
These American police were unbelievable. They always showed up at the worst possible time. When he needed them? Nowhere in sight.
Several plainclothes officers rushed out of their car and immediately aimed their pistols at Scott.
Since Scott was the only one visible…
He lifted his mask obediently. And just like that, the great superhero Ant-Man was arrested again—speechless and disgruntled.
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