Chapter 7 Ant Hill
"Alright, looks like we got a good line up here." as Timebomb looked at the small group in front of him.
"Is this everyone?" asked a big man covered in a green suit and full face helmet with two orange circles on the front for eyes and two tesla coils on his back.
"No," said Timebome. "There is a lot more and with the new bounty on his head it will continue to grow, Ant-man's going to die sooner or later."
"So it's a race to see who can kill him first, oh how exciting." said a man in a bright red and blue unitard, with wavy flowing brown hair. "But then why are we here and not out there? Actually why are we at this old brothel anyway?"
A woman wearing a combat vest, tank top, combat pants and boots stepped forward. "This better not be a waste of time."
"No, since you guys are the ones that responded immediately to the request you guys get a head start on this hunt." said Timebomb. "This is where Ant-man freed the prostitutes, this is where we are going to find his tracks that lead directly to him." Timebomb looked over to a disheveled blonde man in a ragged old suit. "This man is called Playback, his quirk allows him to show the past, we'll use his quirk to track Ant-man down."
"Uhh I can't."
Timebomb slowly turned to Playback. "What…. do you mean….you can't?"
Playback tried to come up with the words but couldn't. "I...I..I don't know. This has never happened before, I've never seen anything like this." Timebomb gave him a look that said he was seconds away from killing the man. "Here just look." Playback extended his hand as a wave of glowing sparkles filled the hallway taking the form of several men, one of which was Timebome himself. "See."
Timebomb stepped forward as he knew the scene. It was when Ant-man confronted them after he freed the girls, but the only problem was something was missing. "Where's Ant-man?"
"I don't know?" said Playback, honestly receiving looks from the others. "I seriously don't know, this has never happened before in my life. No one has ever been able to get away from my quirk."
Timebomb looked back at the scene and noticed something else was off. "The giant ant is missing as well." Timebomb paused for a moment before he started walking down stairs. "Come with. Now!" They followed him downstairs where the girls were kept. "Right here, shortly before he confronted us upstairs, go."
Playback compiled and used his quirk to recreate the scene where several men looked like they were having a fight with something. "What are you looking at?"
"Keep playing it." was all he said. The scene continued as the men were taken out and then the girls poked their heads out of the rooms. A horned girl stepped forward and appeared to be talking to nothing but air, until freezing and touching her neck while looking down. "Pause." Timebomb stepped forward eyeing the girl.
All of them were silent as Timebomb looked at the girl "Please tell me there's a point to this." said the man in the unitard.
Timebomb ignored the man. "Play it back, slowly." As Playback used his quirk they could all see what he was looking at.
Slowly a red tag appeared on the girl's neck. "That's the tag you use to keep track of them right, did he destroy them?"
"No," as Timebomb started piecing things together. "He grew them off."
"It's his quirk," said the woman in combat gear. "The quirk he has must have an effect on other quirks."
"That's why we can't see him here. That's why he was able to take the tags off." Timebomb punched the wall out of frustration. 'SHIT! This is a problem.'
"The ants." They all turned to see a shadow moving on the wall before it stepped off the wall.
"Walking Shadow? What are you doing here?"
"I heard we are hunting Ant-man and I owe him for shocking me." said the Walking Shadow. "If you can't track the man, track his pets." as he pointed to a flying ant.
Timebomb sighed. "That's going to be a pain in the ass but that's the best we got." As Timebomb told Playback to follow the ants. 'I need to come back with results or Lady Aka will have my head."
~o~
"Kenta, where are we going?" asked Izuku as he and his friends followed Kenta down the street. He showed up and practically dragged him out of his apartment.
"Relax man, it's not too far away," said Kenta. "And besides you needed to get out of your room."
"Are you working on something new?" Asked Sarah.
"Not really," said Izuku. "I'm just trying to figure out the notes on the computer."
"What is that supposed to mean?" asked Hanah.
"Well for one all of the computer is in english but that's not much of a problem." said Izuku. "What's odd are the notes left behind by the previous owners."
"Previous owners? You mean that Hank Pym guy?"
"Yes and no."
"How many people owned that computer?" asked Benta.
"Well technically it belongs to a lab so quite a few people could use it. The odd part is a lot of other people's entries don't make a lot of sense." said Izuku. "Hank Pym's are clear and so is the input from whoever Lang is, though his are less about science and more about doing things with the shrinking tech. Like shrinking down a cake and eating it with one bite, or trying to see if he can turn a race car into an RC car."
"Now those are my kind of questions." said Genta
"Yeah but apparently Dr. Pym stopped him whenever he had one of these ideas."
"So what's the issue?" asked Sarah.
"Well as I was looking through the computer I found a section of new entries made by people after the suit and tech was handed over to the lab in San Francisco. They tried to replicate a lot of the old tests, but for some reason they all ended in failure, they couldn't get the suit or particles to work. At first I thought it was because they didn't have the full formula but that also doesn't make sense cause they had the suit, they had the Pym particles and his own computer. Why hasn't anyone replicated his work?"
"Who knows but you can worry about it later," said Kenta before stopping and raising his arms. "Ta-da!" Everyone stopped and were confused for a moment before Kenta pointed at the building behind him. "May I present to you, The Quick Shop Motel."
Behind Kenta was an old Motel that looked slightly run down with a private building sign in the front that said no trespassing. It was a large building with three stories with several garages forming its first floor. "What is this, Kenta?"
Genta stepped forward as he looked at the building. "Wait a minute I know this place, yeah this was that old motel that also tried being an auto shop."
Hanah did a double take. "Wait and Auto shop in a motel?"
"Yeah since this area is situated between the harbor and the city where all the car shows are at, a guy had the idea to make a motel for all the guys picking up cars at the harbor and taking them into town. Though it didn't work out too well." explained Genta.
"I can imagine." said Sarah as she tried to imagine staying at this place. "Trying to sleep while power tools are going off downstairs would drive me nuts."
"So why are we here?" asked Izuku.
Kenta smiled. "I got the keys." as he held out the keys in his hands. "Come on." As Kenta ran to the front office door and unlocked it. The others followed inside where they saw a dusty but surprisingly okay looking lobby area filled with a bunch of car themed pictures and furniture.
"Whoa, not bad." said Genta as he looked around.
Hanah picked up a bell that was in the shape of a hot rod. "I'm not much of a car person but this is kind of cool." she said before coughing. "Though this place is dusty as hell."
"Kenta, why do you have the keys to this place?" asked Izuku.
"Okay, so you know how back when we were helping those motels out, well I got to talking to the owner of the motel nearby and he told me he owns this place. The original owner had to take out some loans to make this place happen and when he couldn't get all the money back on time the guys who got the money from pretty much pointed a gun at him and said have it by the end of the week or your dead, and instead of paying the money the guy booked it leaving everything, leaving it for the gangs to control it. Though when the gang got destroyed due to in fighting the current owner got this place when he discovered that it had barely been touched, he even had hired some people to come by and clean this place up months ago, he was planning on turning this place into a second motel but stopped when a guy pointed a gun at him and said that this place was going to be torn down by next year. Since Ant-Man has kind of put a hold on all plans like that, the owner just wants to get rid of this place and is willing to sell it for cheap."
Izuku gave Kenta a smile and a slight look of disbelief. "You want to make this our base of operation."
Kenta nodded furiously. "Yeah, it's perfect, it's got several rooms and garages fully stocked with power tools that come with the place."
"Serious!"
"Yeah," as Kenta pulled some papers from his pocket. "It's alright here, I told him we've been thinking about opening a shop of some kind to help out the community and well since the gangs on the ropes he just wants to be done with this place."
"Uh, quick question," said Benta. "Not to be that guy but how much is he asking?"
Kenta pointed to the bottom of the paper. "That much."
Izuku saw the amount. "Ooh that is not a lot for a motel, but that's still quite a bit of money."
"Don't suppose one of you guys got a nice stash of money laying around?" asked Hanah.
Genta then surprised everyone as he reached into his pocket and brought out a very thick brick of cash. "Will this work?"
"Where the hell did you get that?"
"Well remember how Flame Elephant dropped the bag of cash to fight you, some stack of bills may have fallen out and I grabbed a bit."
"You grabbed the drug dealer's money." said Izuku as everyone turned to see his response. "Nice."
Genta blinked for a second. "Just to be clear you got no issues with this?"
"Oh I have no issues taking shit from those assholes, if you told me you took those from a church or an old lady then I would have several problems, but right now we are working outside the law and don't really have much options here, so I'll take it." explained Izuku.
"Sweet." said Genta, relieved that there was no issue here. "Then let's use this money and clean this place up."
"Wait a minute," said Benta. "One just to make it clear, if we say we raided a criminal hideout we can take some of it, yes?"
They all were silent for a moment before Kenta snapped his fingers. "The guys who stole your computer."
"Oh yeah," as Izuku remembered who they were talking about. "Aren't they some minor gangsters or something."
"Yeah small group but they have mugged and robbed people and sell whatever they steal online." explained Benta. "I've wanted to give them a little payback."
"I have no problems with that at all." Said Izuku
"Okay then let's open up the Ant-Tel." said Kenta, getting confusing looks from the others. "You know Ant, Motel, Ant-Tel."
Genta shook his head. "No, dude, no."
"The Ant-Farm?" suggested Benta.
Izuku gave a so-so gesture. "Ehh, better but not quite."
"I see where you are going," said Genta. "The Ant Hill."
Izuku looked around the building. "The Ant Hill, now that's a winner, but we only call it that amongst ourselves. We have to come up with something else for this place for the public." As Izuku looked to see Hanah and Sarah running off. "Hey where are you guys going?"
"Gonna call dibs on a room before you guys get the chance." Yelled Hanah as they ran ahead.
The boys stood there for a moment. "Hey!" As they ran after them, exploring the forgotten motel.
~o~
Night Eye looked around at the destruction before him, "So Ant-man and Flame Elephant fought here did they?"
"Yep, right here." said Hawks as they both looked around the area as it was now marked off and a small construction company was fixing up the building. "Don't worry I've already paid for the repairs."
"I had no worries about that." as Night Eye turned to Hawks. "I'm more interested in this Ant-Man. What do you think of him?"
Hawks thought for a moment. "Well he's clearly a nice guy and it seems he wants things to get better around here. Though I haven't had many chances to talk to him, why are you asking?"
"I'm curious and interested in his motives."
"Do you suspect him for something?"
Night Eye thought for a moment. "I'm not sure but the fact that he is shown to have several abilities and appeared out of nowhere does worry me, but his actions have shown that he is trying to do good, I believe it would be best if we talked to him."
"HEY!" They both turned to see a construction worker yelling at a civilian. "You can't be here, you can grab your stuff after we've stabilized the building."
"Sorry, sorry." said the man with an apologetic smile before making a quick glance at the heroes before starting to walk off.
Both heroes saw the glance. "Excuse me sir," the man froze at Night Eye's voice before slowly turning to the heroes.
"Yes," he said, trying to hide his nerves.
"You dropped this." as Night Eye held the man's wallet. "You should get some new pants."
The man touched his pack pocket as he noticed there was now a hole in it and his wallet was missing. "Oh Thank you." As he grabbed the wallet touching Night Eye's hand. "Thanks, well I'll be going now." as the man turned and left.
Hawks bent down and grabbed his feather he used to cut the hole in the guy's pants. "So did you get anything good?"
Night Eye froze for a moment as dread and fear grabbed him. He saw people crushed by a side of a building, a girl being crushed by a truck and an explosion destroying a city block. "Death and destruction."
The man rounded the corner, "Playback, did you get something?" asked Timebomb.
Playback nodded. "Yep I've marked one of the ants that were here the other day, I'll fast forward it and it will lead us right to Ant-man."
"Good, let's go."
"Hold it right there." Yelled Hawks rounding the corner.
"No Hawks wait!" Yelled Night Eye.
Timebomb turned to the man in the green outfit. "Rad Volts."
The man with tesla coils on his back, raised his hand. "Venom Lightning" As a green lightning jumped from his hands in a wave. Hawks instantly felt something wrong as he felt his stomach turn inside out before he threw up his lunch, before he face planted in a pool of his own vomit. "Even the highest ranking heroes are nothing compared to me."
"H...h...hold….it." squeaked Night Eye trying to stay awake.
"Leave them," said Timebomb. "They don't have money on their heads and killing them will only get more heroes on us."
The last thing Night Eye saw before darkness took hold were the villains walking away.
~o~
Izuku was now back at his apartment grabbing a few things and setting up to transfer his ants. "Okay the flying ants are all set and a good enough size to carry the others." As Izuku was ready to move them and some equipment. Even though they didn't officially own the motel yet they had agreed that they should move some stuff and clean the place up. Kenta, Genta and Benta went to go and purchase the building from the current owner, Hanah and Sarah went back to their apartment as they had to work later.
Izuku still thinks they all might be jumping the gun on making their base the motel but he had already planned on spreading his ants around town just incase of emergency. So he decided to go for it. Also even though he would never admit it he was excited to have a base for his Ant-Man work.
As Izuku left his apartment with a small bag. 'This might be a rush but it will be nice to have a bigger place than my room. Not to mention it might get my mom to worry less.' Izuku then was about to head to the motel when he noticed a girl walking down the street in a school outfit he didn't recognize and she was clearly looking lost. 'She is definitely in the wrong part of town. Well better get her out before someone else gets to her.' as he approached the girl. "Excuse me, you lost?"
"Huh?," as the girl turned to Izuku. "Oh Hi, yes, I'm sorry but I'm not from around here."
"I can tell," said Izuku, giving a friendly smile. "I'm Izuku."
"I'm Ochaco Uraraka," greeted Ochaco before showing Izuku her phone. "Do you know where this street is?"
Izuku did. "Oh yeah I know that place, Endeavor just got done fighting the muscle brothers." He had gotten there to watch the tail end of the fight as Ant-man.
"That's the one." as Ochaco smiled. "My family's company just got hired to fix the building along with a few other places."
"Ah I see and you're here because?"
"My dad is checking out the site right now and my mom wants me to bring him his lunch while she goes and talks to the city board about the finances for reconstruction. This is a huge break for the company so they want to make sure it's done right."
"I see, well then come on, I'll take you there." said Izuku as he began walking to the address.
"Thank you" as she followed.
"No problem but you should be more careful around here." as they saw a hero flying above them. "Just because there are more heroes around here doesn't mean this place is exactly safe." As an explosion went off in the distance.
Ochaco stopped as she saw the plume of smoke in the distance. "I see."
"Come on, we can't move if you stand there like a statue." said Izuku as he walked ahead.
"Coming." as she catched up to him.
In the distance the sisters watched. "Uh who is she?" asked Hanah with a hint of jealousy in her voice. Her and Sarah watched as Izuku walked away with a girl.
Sarah felt a little jealous herself but moved on. "Come on, we need to get to work."
~o~
"Are you sure, Night Eye?" asked All Might over the phone.
"Yes," said Night Eye gravelly. "I saw it, here near this construction site was a huge fight that ended with a villain exploding killing several. I've already called in some heroes to help but I don't think it will be enough."
"When is this happening?'
"Soon I'm afraid, because of that man, Rad Volts, I lost track of time. I don't know how soon it's going to be, but I assure you it's going to be today."
"Do you think this has something to do with the nightmares and other visions?" asked All Might.
Night Eye was silent for a moment. "Maybe."
"Okay then I'll be on my way as soon as I can. Try to get the area cleared as soon as possible."
Night Eye was silent for a moment. "Yes." was all he could say as he felt the hopelessness taking hold. 'For years I have hoped my quirk was wrong, now more than ever I pray for a miracle to happen.' Night then looked up at the sky. 'Is this the start of foresight's prediction?'
~o~
"Dad!" Yelled Ochaco as she waved to her dad.
While Ochako talked to her dad Izuku double checked his ants. While they were walking Izuku was also guiding his ants, keeping them from being seen by the people around them.
"This is Izuku," she said, getting his attention. "He's the one who helped me here."
"Thank you young man, for helping my daughter," said Mr Uraraka.
"Ah don't mention it." said Izuku.
"Mr Uraraka sir," They all turned to see a construction worker with an insect antenna on his head running towards them. "Sir there are some heroes here that want to speak with you." As he gestured to Night Eye and his sidekicks.
'Night Eye? What is he doing here?' wondered Izuku before deciding to leave that be for the moment.
"Okay tell them I'll be there in a moment." said Mr Uraraka. "Sorry kids but duty calls, Ochaco, you mind waiting in the trailer office for a minute." Before turning to Izuku.
"Oh don't worry about me sir, I need to get going myself." said Izuku.
"Alright and thank you again." Before he turned to go and talk to the heroes.
"Hey thanks for the help, I guess I'll see you later?" asked Ochaco.
Izuku shrugged. "Sure," before taking out a Mr Ramen business card. "If you ever crave ramen and are in town, go to Mr Ramens. My mom works there and I work part time every now and then."
"Will do." as she took a card.
Before he started walking away only stopping as he saw Kenta's muscle car driving up. "IZUKU!" Yelled Kenta sticking his head out the window with a paper in his hand. "WE GOT ITTTT!"
Izuku did a double take before looking at Benta who was in the back who nodded back. "That quickly! Nice."
Izuku was about to ask for a ride to the motel before an explosion went off right behind them.
~o~
(one minute earlier)
Timebomb stopped the white van they were using. "What is it?" he asked Playback who flinched in the passenger seat.
"Uh the images just flickered, that means that thing I'm following just passed nearby." explained Playback.
"He's near," said Rad Volts as he opened the van doors.
"Hey wait." as Timebomb tried to stop him but it fell on deaf ears as the man left the vehicle.
Rad Volt scanned the area before his eyes fell on the construction site where he saw a man with insect antennas talking to a group of heroes. "Found you." As he raised his hands creating a ball of energy throwing it to the construction site causing an explosion.
Everyone was blinded by the smoke and dust when it cleared. Izuku saw as the villain approached the construction workers. "Oh shit."
"ANT-MAN!" yelled Rad Volts as he walked towards the worker with the insect antennas. "Today you die."
"What?" As the man began to panic. "I just have antennas, I'm not Ant-man."
"DAD!" Yelled Ochaco as her father told her to run away.
"Don't fuck with me." as Rad Volts as he sent a blast of energy to the side blowing a truck in half sent the front half flying towards Ochaco.
The heroes began to pick themselves up. "The girl," said Night Eye as he was about to watch the girl from his vision die again. 'This is where she dies.'
Izuku dashed towards Ochaco, grabbing a growing and drinking discs in his hand and ordered two ants to fly next to him. One ant grew in size and grabbed Izuku with its pincers and tossed him at Ochaco. Izuku tackled her with enough force to move them out of the way of the truck. They both landed with a thud, "Are you okay?"
Ochaco looked up at Izuku, her cheeks turning red, noticing how close he was. "I'm fine." Izuku quickly pulled her up and ran out of the area.
Night Eye could only stare at the scene, it was something that he only had ever dreamed of, his vision didn't come true. "They're alive. He saved her but that wasn't what I saw."
Rad Volts however was paying attention to something else. "A giant ant." he said as the ant looked at him before the other ant used the shrinking disc to return it to normal size. "Ant-Man is here, come out and show yourself, you coward."
"Centicoil '' Yelled the hero Centipeder as he wrapped his centapede arms around Rad Volt. "Cease at once villain."
Rad Volt just chuckled. "I'm the worst opponent for you." as he simply put his hand on the extended limb, shooting green lightning through Centipeder's arm.
Centipeder limbs went limp as he felt the electric shock before he felt his stomach turn upside down, 'What?' he thought as he tried to keep himself from throwing up.
"Bubble Storm" As Bubble girl made hundreds of bubbles trying to cover Rad Volt's vision.
"Pathetic." as Rad Volts snapped his fingers causing his green lightning to pop all the bubbles, revealing a stunned Bubble Girl. "Die." As he sent a fast ball at Bubble girl.
Before Bubble girl was hit a feather caught Bubble girl and pulled her out of the way. "I got you." said Hawks from above. "Everyone, keep your distance, his quirk is pretty much radiation in the form of lightning."
"Very impressive bird brain, but that isn't going to help you." as Rad Voltfired several lightning bolts at the hero.
"Goddammit, what is that psycho doing?" asked Playback.
"Drawing out Ant-Man," said Timebomb before he saw Playback slowly walking backwards. "Where are you going?"
"Look man, I'm no fighter and the cops can't know I'm connected to any of this. I'm gonna put some distance between me and you guys. Come and get me if you guys don't kill Ant-Man." As he raised his hand bringing the image of the ants back, before walking away.
Not too far away was Kenta, Gent and Benta, all of them sitting in Kenta's car. "Hey, you think we should do something?" asked Genta.
"Yeah but what?" asked Kenta
"I'll call Izuku," as Benta took out his phone.
"Don't worry I'm right here." As Izuku grew in the back sit in his Ant-Man suit. "Sorry I had to make sure that girl was safe."
"Izuku," said Genta, getting his attention as he pointed out into the distance. "You said a guy with a clock tattoo was working for sex trafficers right?"
Izuku followed and saw Timebomb. "Shit, that's Timebomb, what is he doing here?"
"I don't know but we saw him talking to some raggedy dude that just walked away."
"Raggedy dude?"
"I think he was following you," said Benta. "He brought some glowing looking dots back into his hand, I think it was your ants."
"How the hell could you make ants out from here?" asked Kenta.
"My quirk recognizes symbols and images when translating, so I can kind of make details out of other things." explained Benta.
"That makes sense," said Izuku as he looked back at Timebomb getting into a van. "He must be trying to track me down." An explosion brought Izuku's attention back to the fight as he saw Rad Volt create another crater. "They need help."
"Go man, we got this." said Kenta.
Genta agreed. "Yeah the three of us should be able to handle one guy."
Izuku looked at Benta who gave a thumbs up. "Good luck."
"You too." as he shrunk down and headed towards the action.
"So what's the plan?" asked Benta
"I have no idea," said Kenta.
~o~
"Shit" yelped Hawks as he dodged another bolt of lightning. 'This guy is no joke, you can't get close to this guy without getting sick and his lightning is knocking all of my feathers out of the sky.'
"Come on now, is that the best you got," asked Rad Volts before noticing a fireball incoming that he deflected with his lightning. "More pests."
"Don't worry Hawks," yelled Burnin as she threw another fireball at Rad Volt. "The flaming sidekicks are here, Endeavor should be here soon."
A green lightning bolt clashed with the fireball. "But will you live long enough for him to get here?" as he sent lightning at Burnin.
"I got this." Yelled Kido as he put a hoop of his bandages in front of him redirecting the lightning.
"Hhmm, maybe you will be more fun after all." as Rad Volt roared as he sent a surge of his radioactive lightning around him. The lightning began to hit everything in the construction site, construction equipment and tools. He hit the scaffolding cracking the side of a building, where a few workers were hiding.
Night Eye remembered this. "The people under that building will be crushed."
Burnin looked and saw them before the building started to crumble above them. "Fuck." They all watched as the building started to fall, but before any of them got crushed several giant ants appeared and formed a dome around the workers stopping the rumble from hurting them. "What?"
"ANTS!" yelled Rad Volt
"Looking for me?" as Ant-Man grew above the villain punching him in the face. The villain swung his arm in a counter but only hit air. "You're going to need to do better than that."
"I will crush you, puny ant." as he started to zap the ground around him.
Night Eye quickly guided the remaining workers out but as he was he kept glancing back at Ant-man. 'Those ants changed my vision, again!' He then watched as Ant-man kept shrinking and regrowing to hit Rad Volts over and over again. 'How is changing the future?'
"How are you hitting me?" yelled Rad Volts. "I'm radioactive!"
Izuku regrew himself. "My suit is resistant to radiation." As he kicked Rad Volts.
"What?" as he threw another bolt out.
Izuku shrunk down and then regrow again for a well placed jump uppercut, causing the man to stagger. "Do you have any idea how many things are radioactive, for a fully grown person it might not be much or even noticeable but to a guy who can shrink. I got to have a good suit."
Rad Volt made a huge ball of lightning slamming it on the ground, Izuku shrunk and moved away. "Doesn't matter, you still can't beat me with your puny punches."
The ground shook as something landed in the area. "Then let's see how my punches fair."
"All Might!"
"It's All Might….Oh no." Ant- Man returned to his regular size. "All Might wait, he's highly radioactive, unless you have a protective suit, you can't fight him up close."
"Don't worry, Ant-Man," said All Might as he looked around the construction site. "There's more than one way to fight a villain."
"Ha," scoffed Rad Volts. "Throwing shit at me won't work. Did you really think I wouldn't have thought of a counter for that?" As the coils on his back began to activate causing electricity to dance around him. "Bring it on."
"Then let's see what happens if I turn up the heat."
Everyone turned to the voice. "ENDEAVOR!"
"Flashfire Fist" As Endeavor sent a torrent of flame that completely enveloped the villain.
"Alright, boss. Fire that villain." yelled Burnin with joy before she stopped as they heard something.
"HAHAHAHAHA" as the flames parted enough to see Rad Volt in a ball of energy protecting him from the flames. "Is that all you got? HA." as he began to build up energy around him. "I will destroy all of you."
Izuku groaned. "Ah Shit."
~o~
"Okay, there he is." as Kenta was driving slowly behind Playback who was walking down the street. "What do we do?"
"I think I have an idea." as benta got out of the car and ran up to Playback. "Excuse me sir, can I have a moment of your time?"
Playback gave Benta a look of disbelief. "Okay who the fuck are you?"
"I work for a community center and I'm curious about your opinion of the vigilante Ant-Man?"
Playback's mind froze as he looked like Benta was insane.
"What?" asked Genta who also walked up to the two, also looking at Benta as if he was crazy. "What the hell are you doing?"
"Forgive my friend here," said Benta quickly. "He doesn't believe that the direct approach is the most-"
Genta started making a slashing motion. "Okay, stop, just stop. Cut the bullshit. You've already dropped the ball." He then turned to Playback. "Are you the motherfucker trying to mess with Ant-Man?"
Playback slowly looked between Benta and Genta before he suddenly turned and started running away. Kenta jumped out of his car and quickly grabbed Playback's arm. "Let me-"
He didn't finish as Kenta punched him in the face knocking him out. "Yeah that's what you get."
"Damn Kenta, nice punch." said Genta as he made sure Playback was out.
"Okay, so what do we do with him now?" asked Benta.
"Uhh?"
"Take him to the cops?" asked Genta
"You know what I'll call Izuku." said Kenta as he pulled out his phone. "He should be done with that fight by now."
Suddenly a massive green beam of light pierced the sky. "I don't think he's done yet."
~o~
'This is it,' Thought Night Eye. 'This is the moment where he blows a chunk out of the city.'
"Burnin open fire," yelled Endeavor as he started to blow fire at the villain. "We can't let him explode."
"Wait Endeavor, stop firing for a moment." yelled All Might. "I'll throw him in the air before he explodes."
"Oh for the love of," as Ant-Man ran forward shrinking, hopping onto a fly ant, they manuvarde left and right avoiding debris. He got off of the ant as he got close enough to the energy barrier. 'I hope this works.' as Izuku regrew himself though the barrier, inches away from Rad Volt, surprising the villain. "How about you come down to my size." as he slapped a shrinking disc on the man's forehead.
"Whaaaaaaa" screamed Rad Volt as he shrunk down to the size of an insect.
Izuku quickly shrunk down following Rad Volt. "Okay, let's see how-"
"HELP!"
Izuku froze as he saw Rad Volt begin to shake, his lightning started to act erratic. "What the…?"
"Make it stop, make it-hurck" Rad Volt ripped his mask off revealing a blonde man with green skin. The man started to vomit profusely. "Oh god it hurts, what are you doing to me?" as cracks began to form on the man's face. "What are you doing to me?"
"Stop calm down." as Izuku readied a growing disk.
"Oh god this is my quirk." yelled Rad Volts realizing it. "This pain, this sickness, its my quirk, your shrinking quirk is doing this to me, make it stop, PLEAAAAASSSSEEEE!" Izuku didn't need anymore as he hit Rad Volts with a growing disk.
All the heroes were shocked as Rad Volts suddenly reappeared in a messed up state, bleeding from several parts of his body and crying like a broken man.
Izuku went back to his normal size. "Hey you alright?"
"Get away, get away." Yelled Rad Volt as he turned and tried to crawl away. "Don't use your quirk on me."
"What?" Izuku was truly confused at what was going on.
"I surrender, I surrender." As Rad Volt started to crawl towards Endeavor. "Just get that monster away from me."
Endeavor looked at the man and then back to Ant-man. "Hold it right there, both of you are under arrest."
Izuku knew where this was going and shrunk down, hopped on a winged ant and flew away. "Wait," shouted Night Eye as he watched Izuku disappear. "No."
"Night Eye, what's wrong?" asked All Might as the other heroes secured Rad Volts.
Night Eye gathered himself. "Ant-man, he..he was able to change the visions I've had."
All Might's eyes went wide. "WHAT!"
Hawks saw this and gave them a confused look. "Is that a big deal?"
"Hawks," as Night Eye looked at him with complete seriousness. "No one has ever
changed my visions before. Today I saw the death of many, which is something I'm used to seeing. For years my vision has accurately predicted the death of several people and today I just witnessed a man who broke that cycle."
It took Hawks a moment to think about what Night Eye was saying as he tried to imagine what Night Eye's life has been like. "Well shit, if you two teamed up you guys could be one hell of a duo."
"He's a criminal," said Endeavor as he looked over to see Burnin help the police put Rad Volts into a prison truck. "As heroes we need to catch him and bring him to justice."
"No, we need him," said Night Eye firmly. "We need him if we are going to change the future."
Chapter 8 Quirks and Particles
Izuku met up with his friends at the Ant hill. He had dusted off a table in one of the garages and put the computer on it, he spent the rest of the day on the computer going through its files. Soon all of his friends were in the garage asking him if he was all right. "I'm sorry guys, it's just I have no idea what just happened. Why was that guy getting torn apart when he was shrunken down? I've shrunken down several people and nothing like this happened to them."
"What exactly happened?" asked Sarah.
"I shrunk him down trying to stop him from exploding a city block but when I shrunk him down it was as if his quirk was tearing him apart." explain Izuku.
"Maybe it was," said Hanah as she sat down on a tool bench. "I've seen several idiots at the school and around town blow themselves up because they were stupid with there quirk."
"That would make sense," said Benta. "Think about it, maybe his body couldn't contain all that power at such a small size."
Izuku thought it over, "Yeah I guess that mak-"
THUD
They all turned to Kenta's car. "Kenta….What's in your trunk?"
Kenta's face turned to shock as he remembered. "Oh shit the guy!"
"The guy, what guy?"
"Oh yeah, we kind of forgot about him." chimed Genta.
Izuku gave them a look of disbelief before turning to Benta. "What?"
Benta took a deep breath."Remember that guy you asked us to get, the man talking to Timebomb."
"Timebomb!" yelped Sarah. "The guy who worked for the sex slavers?!"
"Yeah that guy," said Kenta. "We grabbed his friend and kind of forgot he was in the trunk of my car."
Izuku 's eyes couldn't go any wider, as he looked at the three, not fully believing what they just told him. Hanah on the other burst out laughing her ass off, she clenched her stomach as she fell off the tool bench.
THUD
Izuku looked at the car as it became clear the guy was trying to get out of the car. "Actually this works in our favor." as he grabbed his suit and told him his plan.
Soon the trunk of the car opened. "Finally," said Playback as he fell out of the trunk, landing on the ground with a thud. He groaned before looking up face to face with a giant ant. "AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH".
"Shut up," Yelled Ant-man. "Stop screaming, we need to talk."
Playback got to his feet and noticed he was surrounded by a bunch of giant ants, before he refocused on Ant-Man. "Look man, I'm sorry okay, they hired me to do a simple job, man. I couldn't even do it."
"Explain."
"Your quirk, it messed with my quirk, I couldn't track you."
"Track me? Who are you?" Asked Ant-Man but noticed he was hesitating. "Please don't make me threaten you."
Playback gulped. "They call me Playback, cause my quirk allows me to see where people have been. Timebomb hired me to track you down but I couldn't, whatever your quirk is, it messes with mine and other people's quirks. I couldn't track you and Timebomb's people are not people you want to fuck with, okay. I have zero combat ability."
Izuku thought for a moment. 'Timebomb didn't seem like the guy who wants revenge, no he's a henchman, he's working for someone and he has people working for him.' "Who else is working for Timebomb?" asked Ant-Man.
"I don't know exactly," The ants stepped forward. "I'm being honest, he has several people and I only saw four of them, I never got any names but with the bounty on your head he should have a lot more."
"Bounty?"
"Yeah, you pissed off a good chunk of the criminal underworld and I'm not just talking about japan. I don't know how they did it but several crime syndicates used this area for dealing, local and international, they had some sort of system to keep this place quiet until you came along. They are pissed and a lot of them ain't going to rest until you are in a grave."
'Shit! This is bad, I always knew there were worse things here but if the shit hole I've been living in this whole time is a cover up, then what the hell is underneath all the shit?'
"Um look man, I promise I won't try and track you down again, can you please just let me go." asked Playback hoping the vigilante would just let him go.
"Don't worry, I'm not going to kill you, but" Izuku then threw a shrinking disk at Playback, turning him tiny. "You aren't going anywhere yet." As Izuku shrunk himself enough to grab Playback and put him in a jar covered in magazine clippings so that he couldn't see out of it."
Izuku then grew back to his regular height as his friends came out of hiding. "So what are you going to do with him?" Asked Sarah.
Izuku sighed as he put the jar down on the table. "I'm going to have to talk to Turk to let me borrow his memory wiping guy." He then looked to see his friends' faces. "What?"
"TURK! As in the TURK!" said Kenta in a very loud voice.
Izuku looked away and scratched his head. "Yeah, I may have done a few jobs for him a few years ago."
"I thought you said don't do anything too illegal," said Genta.
"Those were not my words and second, this was years ago, back when me and my mom were still knee deep in debt." explained Izuku. "Besides he owes me a favor as long as he doesn't figure out it was me who hacked his computer."
"Why the hell did you hack his computer?" asked Benta. "He's probably killed for less."
"He has and I needed the locations for traffickers' warehouses." As Izuku started taking the suit off, leaving him in his t-shirt and shorts. "Besides that, we have other things to worry about." as he held the suit. "This suit has given me the opportunity that I only dreamt of when I was a little kid, but now it's gotten me a bounty on my head from the underworld. I don't care what they throw at me but it's going to put the rest of you guys in dang-"
Izuku didn't finish as Kenta slammed his fist on Izuku's head. "SHUT UP." yelled Kenta as Izuku rubbed his new bump on his head. "If you even think about giving us a speech about us having to run away, think again, bro. You've stuck with me when we were caught by the cops and even got me out. I ain't leaving you hanging and I doubt anyone else here is leaving."
"Yeah, you've always been a good bet." Genta said simply.
Benta nodded. "I'm pretty sure I would have been killed if it wasn't for you."
"That would have been me if you didn't come to my rescue, if there's anything you need help with just say the word." Sarah offered.
"Yeah we're with you." stated Hanah.
Izuku couldn't help but look at his friends with a warm feeling in his chest. "I don't know who's crazier me or you guys wanting to stay near me." He then glanced at the suit. "But it still might be dangerous being too close to me. I still don't know the full effects of Pym particles on a person."
"Are you in any danger?" asked Sarah.
"I don't think so, I've been using the particles for nearly three weeks and nothing has happened to me."
"What about that Hank guy?" asked Hanah. "Did anything happen to him?"
"No I don't think so, all of his and Lang's notes say that their experiments they conducted were all successful." as Izuku went back to the computer and looked at the notes. "And the notes were made years apart."
Kenta looked over Izuku's shoulder, not really making heads or tails of the english. "Well maybe they had the same quirk as you."
Izuku got annoyed at that. "For the last time Kenta I'm quirk..less…." Izuku's eyes widened as he realized something. "That's it."
As Kenta puffed out his chest. "See I can come up with science stuff." As he received looks from the others.
Izuku. quickly returned to the computer and started typing away until he found what he was looking for, he then turned to Kenta. "Kenta, how would you like to try on the suit?"
"Really?" As he gave Izuku a goofy grin. Izuku handed him the Ant-man suit. "Hell yeah."
"Is this really a good idea?" asked Genta.
Hanah nodded in agreement. "Yeah, I don't know how I feel about Kenta wearing that suit."
"Just watch," said Izuku as Kenta put on the suit.
"Oh wow this is a lot more comfortable than I thought." said Kenta, feeling the suit.
"Yeah it changes size depending on the wearer." As Izuku stepped forward checking the suit. "Okay how are you feeling?"
"I feel good." said Kenta before Izuku asked him to shrink. "Okay, here I go." as Kenta hit the button but nothing happened, he pressed it again, nothing. "Uh I think I broke it."
"No you didn't." said Izuku before he told Kenta to take it off and switch with him. As Izuku put the suit on he switched out the Pym Particles with fresh ones. "Okay let's try this now." As he hit the button and shrunk down.
"What!" shouted Kenta as he saw Izuku shrink. "How come it worked for you and not me?"
"Cause you have a quirk," said Benta. "That's the whole reason the radiation dude had problems in the first place. Those particles don't work for people with quirks."
"Not exactly," said Izuku regrowing. "Do any of you guys know where we can find three plants that I can use?"
Sarah raised her hand. "Right here, each room of the motel had a small potted plant near the window. Some of them were dead but I think a few should still be alive."
"Great, can you go and get them for me, please and thank you." As the sisters went to get the potted plants Izuku asked the others to help him set up some equipment. Soon the sisters brought back three potted plants and Izuku printed two new shrinking disks. "Okay this should explain what's going on. While the suit doesn't have a proper screen, it does have a computer in it, also note to self had screen or hud to the suit and helmet. The computer will only activate the particles if it deems it safe. It also records the biometric data of whoever is wearing it." Izuku then held up the two disks each in one hand. "The one in my left hand is made with my data and the particles I used, the one on my right is Kenta's."
Izuku threw the one in his left hand, shrinking one of the potted plants, they all moved closer to see it really did shrink down. "Now let's try Kenta's." as Izuku threw the right disk at the potted plant, they all backed away in horror as they saw the plant turn into a tiny ball of slug falling to the ground.
"WHAT THE FUCK!" shouted Genta.
Sarah's face twisted in disgust. "Okay that's gross."
Hanah leaned forward. "It's like it melted."
"Could that have been Kenta, if he shrunk down?" asked Benta causing Kenta freeze in horror at the idea of turning into a big ball of goo.
"If it wasn't for the suits safety features then yeah, this might have been Kenta." said Izuku causing Kenta to turn green ready to throw up. "Lucky Dr. Pym was prepared. This is also why no one was able to replicate his work." Izuku grabbed a third disk from his bag and threw it at the third plant, shrinking it just like the first one. "He was quirkless, just like me."
"Wait, I'm confused here," said Sarah. "You've used those disks to shrink people before, why didn't they turn to slug?"
"Because they were based on my biometric, the disks don't have a computer or safety features, to make sure the disks work right and shrink everything evenly, they need a biometric base."
"You." said Benta as he thought over the information. "Then that means there is something that we as quirked people have that does something to the particles."
"Quirk factor." Izuku said simply.
"Quirk factor?" siad Kenta confused.
Genta shook his head. "Okay, you're going to need to explain it like we stupid."
"It's pretty much a theory that we just confirmed." as Izuku thought of a way to explain it. "In all of you is something that allows you to have a quirk, but no one had any idea what it was because of how small it was and how different it was in every person. Pym particles shrink the space between atoms, think of your bodies as a container and your quirk as the liquid, the pym particles shrink the container which may cause the liquid inside to change."
The others were silent for a moment. "Oh I get it." said Kenta.
Genta looked at him. "No you don't."
"No I don't."
"I think I do," said Benta. "So when you use the disk on the radiation guy, he shrunk down and since his container changed so did his quirk, he lost his immunity to his quirk when he shrunk down."
"Yeah, he did scream and yell that his quirk was hurting him," said Izuku. "His quirk was powerful but only because he was immune to it. The second he lost it he was torn up inside."
"Then what about us?" asked Sarah "What would happen if we shrink down?"
Izuku looked at her. "Uh I don't know and I'm not sure how to test it."
"Well just shrink me down."
Izuku gave her a look that said 'are you crazy?' "Did you not see what happened to the plant? We have no idea what could happen to you."
Hanah stepped forward. "Well we won't know unless we find out and our quirk is literally us changing our hair color. What could possibly happen if we shrink down, our skin changes color."
Izuku thought it over for a moment, before reluctantly agreeing to shrink the two. "Okay fine, but the second something goes wrong I'm growing you two back to regular size." He then turned to the guys. "Do you guys also want to shrink?"
Kenta turned to the tiny slug on the floor. "I think I'm good for now."
"Yeah, we'll stay tall to make sure things go alright." said Genta.
"Would you like me to monitor the computer or write notes?" asked Benta, he and Izuku quickly set up the camera and formed a quick testing zone.
"Okay you two ready?" asked Izuku.
"Yep." said Sarah.
"Let's shrink," said Hanah. Izuku took two disks and shrunk the two down to the size of the ants, they both were in awe as they looked at their surroundings. "Whoa everything is huge!"
Sarah looked around at the garage. "So this is what it's like for you." As Sarah was looking around she noticed something. "Hanah can you check my hair for a second?"
"Uh sure," as Hanah looked at her sister's hair. "It's looks-whao!"
"What's wrong?" asked Izuku on alert.
"Her hair, its longer."
"What?"
"My scalp does feel a little weird," said Sarah before her hair started to get longer and longer. Hanah quickly had to grab her sister's flowing hair. "Wait, stop, stop." The hair stopped leaving Sarah with several feet of hair around her.
"Sis, are you okay?" asked Hanah.
"Yeah I'm fine," said Sarah as she tried to move with her new long hair. "I'm not in any pain but my head does feel weird."
"Did anything else happen at all," asked Izuku. "Like hair growing on other places on your body?"
Sarah patted herself. "No, I think it's just my head."
"Can you still change the color of your hair?" asked Hanah.
Sarah focused and her hair changed to a shiny gold. "Yeah, I still can but did my hair get heavier?"
"Whao," said Kenta as he looked closer. "She looks like that long hair princess girl."
"Rapunzel." corrected Benta.
"Yeah, but she is tiny like Tinker Bell," said Genta. "She could be like a cousin or sister."
"That's Periwinkle." said Benta before everyone slowly turned to him. "Periwinkle, Tinker Bell's twin sister." They all just kept looking at him. "My mom only has Disney movies, that's all I watched as a kid, stop judging me."
Izuku held Sarah's hair in his hand. "Sarah, I think you literally turned your hair into gold."
"WHAT!" they all yelled.
"I wish I had a knife or something to-" before Izuku could finish Sarah's hair fell off, leaving the girl hair down to knees. "Huh?"
"Sarah, how'd you do that?" asked Hanah.
"I just imagined my hair shortening to my legs, I thought I could try and retract it, but instead it just disconnected?" she guessed.
"Izuku," said Genta. "Can I see some of that golden hair?" Izuku grew a strand for him to check.
Hanah dropped the hair she was holding and grabbed a bit of Sarah's hair. "Can you try and disconnect the hair I'm holding?" Sarah focused and her hair cut itself, leaving Hanah holding a clump of Sarah. "Whoa."
Sarah turned her hair to black , seemingly to normal hair. "How about you can you do anything with your hair?"
Hanah focused slowly turning her hair red. "I don't think my hair's doing anything." Before anything else the top of Hanah's head caught fire. "AAAAAAHHHHHHH!" she screamed before she started running. "MY HAIR'S ON FIRE, GET IT OFF, GET IT OFF!"
"Hold still, I'll grow you back." yelled Izuku running towards her, before he reached her the fiery hair fell off her head.
Kenta grabbed a water bottle he had in his car and put out the glup of hair. "You guys okay, down there?"
Izuku looked to see the hair was out and Sarah was checking Hanah. "Yeah I think so."
"NOOO," yelled Sarah. "MY HAIR!" Sarah was left with very short hair on her head, causing tears well up in her eyes. "Izuku can you fix it?"
"Just relax for a second, are you in any pain or burnt anywhere?" asked Izuku.
"I don't know?" muttered Hanah.
Sarah checked her sister's scalp. "No she doesn't have any burn marks or anything, I don't think the fire hurt her at all." This news relieved Izuku and Sarah. "Hanah, breathe and focus, think of your hair growing to the middle of your back, okay?"
"Okay, I'll try." Hanah closed her eyes and breathed. Her hair slowly began to grow until it reached her back. "I did, my hair's back."
Izuku blew a sigh of relief. "This could have been bad." Before he looked up at Genta. "So what's the verdict?"
Genta held up the hair. "This is one hundred percent real gold."
"Wow," muttered Sarah.
"Looks like there's more to our quirk than we first thought." said Hanah as she wiped the tears from her eyes.
"I think this has something to do more with the particles, right?" as she turned to Izuku.
"Yeah, it's official. Pym particles can alter people's quirks." said Izuku before regrowing the three. "This is going to take a lot more research than I thought."
"Well how about we put that aside for later," suggested Kenta. "Cause we still got other stuff we should be doing around here."
"Yeah we need to clean this place up and figure out what we're going to do with it." said Genta.
"I have a few ideas," said Benta. "But we should probably clean this place up first."
"Yeah but first," Izuku took out his phone. "I need to give Turk a quick phone call."
~o~
In the back of prison transport sat two villains in chains with guns pointed at them. Flame Elephant and Rad Volt. "What the fuck happened to your face?"
Rad Volt glared at Flame Elephant. The result of shrinking left lightning burn marks on his face and body. "Ant-Man."
"Shut up, both of you." said the officer. "No talking until we get to Tarturus."
"I'm afraid I need a word from them."
The officer went on alert as they looked around for the new voice. "Who's there?"
"Me," They all looked down on the floor to see a shadow holding two guns before it pulled the trigger, killing the police officers.
The transport screeched to a halt before gunshots and screaming were heard. The Shadow man pulled himself off the floor and opened the doors revealing Timebomb. He looked at Rad Volt, "You look like shit," and then turned to Flame Elephant. "You just look like crap."
Rad Volt ignored the comments. "Hurry up and get me out of here," he hissed. "I need to find Ant-Man and rip his throat out."
"No, release me." yelled Flame Elephant. "I need to crush that bug."
Timebomb took out a roll of tape and put a few pieces on the restraints of both of them. "I don't care which one of you does it, I just need him dead." The pieces of tape exploded destroying the restraints. "Now hurry up before the heroes get here."
The two walked out of the transport to see several bodies of police officers on the floor and a patrol car turned over. "Oh look, the loser has a friend." They turned to see the man in a unitard step on the corpse of an officer. "Why are we rescuing the failure?"
Rad Volt looked at the man ready to kill but stopped when Timebomb stepped between them. "He's powerful and his fight with Ant-man may give us some useful intel."
"Who is this man?" asked Flame Elephant.
The man in the unitard smiled before quickly kicking his leg causing a massive slice on Flame Elephant's stomach. "I'm Sir Dazzle, and you will show me respect, you brute."
Flame Elephant burned as he looked at Dazzle. "You will regret that puny man."
Before they could clash a knife landed between them. "Knock it off," said the woman in the military get up. "The heroes are coming, it's time to move."
They all quickly ran away from the scene as they did. Timebomb got a call on his phone. "Hello, Lady Aka."
"What happened, I thought you had a person who could track Ant-Man?" she said over the phone.
"I'm sorry ma'am I didn't talk to you sooner but fighting Ant-Man might be more difficult than we originally thought." as he went on to explain what happened over the day. "I just got done getting Rad Volt back and we're currently moving away from the scene."
"So that's why, foresight wasn't able to track him."
"Foresight? Uh what's Foresight?" he asked hoping he didn't cross a line.
Lady Aka hummed for a moment on the phone. "I'm sending you a location, I want you to go there and wait for further instructions and make sure Rad Volt is with you, I have a few friends that would like to hear this."
~o~
Izuku slowly made his way home after a long day on top of dropping Playback with Turk's man. 'Man we did a lot today,' thought Izuku. 'Found a new base of operations, fought a villain and discovered that only a quirkless person could operate the suit.' that made him chuckle slightly as he entered his apartment. 'It's nice to think that only someone like me can have this power, like my quirk.'
"It looks like you had a good day today." said Inko who was sitting on the couch.
"Oh hey mom," Izuku looked at the clock. "You're home early today." Inko gave him a look. "What?"
"Izuku we talked about this, do you remember where we are going tomorrow?" she asked, receiving a blank look before signing. "Izuku, I know things have been crazy the past few weeks but we agreed to go see Mitsuki tomorrow."
"Oh right," said Izuku. "Katsuki got attacked, that's right, I'm sorry mom, I totally forgot."
"It's alright, a lot has happened."
Izuku then remembered just how much had happened. "It's been crazy."
"No kidding, you looking forward to seeing Katsuki again?"
"Sure, I wonder if he's changed at all?"