Not Expendable

Giant Save

"You guys need to get out of there," Sam said.  "The ship's smoking.  It's gonna-"

Sam's voice was suddenly interrupted by static from the ship.  Hope could barely here the sounds of alien shrieking, and human yells of pain.  One sounded hauntingly like Scott.  Hope's heart constricted in her chest.  With determination, she began to run towards the ship.  Her helmet snapped around her face once more, and in an instant, she was no longer running, but shrinking and flying. 

"Hope, stop!" Cap yelled after her.  "It's too late!"

Just as Hope was about to radio, she saw the panels of the ship begin to twist, contort, and break into pieces. Then she finally believed for herself that it was too late.  She saw Stark stop in the air, just before the front of the ship completely fell apart.  She couldn't quite register what she was seeing until she recognized the hundreds of square feet of red of Scott's suit. 

He'd gone giant and broken through the ship from the inside. 

"Scott!" Hope cried.  Her eyes flickered over his now colossal body falling through the sky.  He'd grown bigger than he ever had before; even larger than when he took the lab back from Birch.  He was likely unconscious.  Smoke curled away from his body as he continued to fall.  The ship too began to spiral down.

Hope's eyes quickly found a small splotch of red clinging to the silver of Scott's helmet.  Peter.

"Peter, the switch!" Hope screamed over the radio.  "On his left thumb!"

She began to fly closer and closer, but she was still watching from hundreds of feet away.  An overwhelming feeling of helplessness filled her chest as she continued to fly; she knew she couldn't get there fast enough.  It seemed as if she was moving so slowly in the moment that she wasn't moving at all.  She watched Peter crawl across Scott and disappear out of sight.  The distance between Scott and the ground kept getting shorter and shorter. 

Finally, Scott's massive form shuddered back to his normal size.  Peter clung to Scott with one arm, and with the other, he shot out a string of web to Rhodes.  Hope finally caught up to them as they safely landed.  As she grew back to normal size, she heard the other avengers approaching behind her.  Tony landed a few moments before Rhodes, Peter, and Scott.  They laid Scott on the ground carefully.  Hope found herself frozen. 

"Mr. Lang?" Peter asked hesitantly, but with no response.  He tried to find the button that would remove Scott's helmet.  For some reason, it made Hope snap back into reality.  With a sharp intake of breath, she found herself moving to her husband's side.  Her eyes found a wound in his side--a dime-sized puncture hole oozing with blood.  To Hope's relief, his chest still rose with shallow breaths. 

"Scott," Hope breathed as she released his helmet from his face.  His eyes were closed, but his body was responsive to her as she tried to wake him.  He took in a deep breath, but then groaned in pain as he fully gained consciousness.  His eyes slowly opened and glanced at Hope, then down to his side.  Hope's stomach twisted as he suddenly grimaced in pain and confusion.  He leaned his head back into the ground, clenching his teeth, legs fidgeting in response to the throb of the stab wound. 

"I'm calling for help," Tony said. 

"No need," T'Challa said in his thick Wakandan accent.  "Shuri is sending a hovercraft."

Peter looked at Hope through the eyes of his suit.  "He saved me," he said humbly, still over Scott.  "He took the stab wound, then turned giant."

"What did they stab him with?" Hope whispered.  To her surprise, Scott answered.

"A spear-looking thing," he grunted through his clenched teeth.  His eyes bore into her with the intensity of a tiger, and she understood he'd never felt physical pain this bad before.  He could be bleeding internally, or have punctured organs.  "I-I think there was some sort of toxin on it."  His body trembled as he tried to keep his head up to continue to look at Hope.  He saw the fear in her face, the effort it was taking for her to remain calm.