Henry Pym, son of the Wasp and Giant Man, stared up at what was once Ultron's trophies. Now it was a memorial to the heroes Earth lost.
Pym, the baby of the new Avengers (he was only 2 years younger than everyone else thank you very much).
"What did you guys do when everyone babied you?" He question the giant helmet and shredded suit, the last remains of parents he never got to know. Okay, not counting the iron suit ones. He still had nightmares about those.
The team had always been super protective of him, as the youngest, but it had only gotten worse recently.
So what if he had almost died in a nova storm helping the New Guardians of the Galaxy? He was fine now. He had coped. He had totally coped.
"You do not realize how lucky you are." A voice hissed from behind.
Pym zipped around. This memorial was in a private lab of Tony's. With top security.
Shadows surrounded him. Hadn't there been more lights on before?
"Who's there?"
"I've read your mind. I've seen how you grew up. It was so...idealic. Fun. Free. Nothing like a lab. Nothing like the tests. Nothing like..."
"Nonononono--not going there. Not anymore." The voice continued.
"I said who is there." He aimed his stinger everywhere, but the voice seemed to come from his mind.
"You don't know. Nobody knows..."
Pym heard a puff of smoke from somewhere above him and a smell of sulfur. Looking up, he saw blue, furry, and tailed humanoid about his age.
They held on to one of the many glass cases holding a treasured piece of hero history, but Pym couldn't tell which one. Punching their furry arm through, they shattered the glass, grabbed whatever was inside, and moved to do it to another.
"HEY!" Pym cried as he shrunk and flew up, avoiding the falling shards of glass. But the thief swatted him back and than teleported in a puff of blue smoke. "What?"
This was like one of those other heroes Tony told them about...who...an X-men...
Another puff revealed the figure on the ground below them, standing next to another figure.
Bespeckled with red hair and very tall, they looked to be Azari's age.
They looked Pym deep in the eyes, and that voice returned.
"So lucky. Just let us take this. We need it. You have your parents stuff, let us have ours."
What? A wave of sadness and hurt cross Pym's mind, but it felt like someone else, like a projected emotion. It was so strong, he found himself sinking to the floor.
"You don't get it, the pain, the fear, the torture."
The Red head's grip on him--their power over his mind--was so tight, so powerful, Pym began to black out.
The last thing he saw was the two figures teleporting away in a wiff of sulfur, the tall one talking for the first time.
"Sorry."
----
--
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Those cases had their own security.
Toren and Azari ran through the halls of the New Avenger base (built by Tony, of course) to the Memorial room.
"What is Pym doing there?" Toren questioned as they ran. "He had never been a fan of social studies or historical epics."
"He's been going there more since...the accident." Azari shivered to think of thay storm.
Pym had been shrunk, zipping past some pirates when the gravity of a nearby comet had sucked him in, heading for the heart of the nova storm. No one had been able to reach him before the mini-Pym went through it.
Agonizing minutes had gone by as the New Avengers had waited alongside the new Guardians of the Galaxy, waiting to see of their brother would make it through.
He did. But not the same as he had gone in, despite the youngest new avengers claim to the contrary.
They had tried to talk to him about it--
The sound of shoes squeaking to a stop pulled them away from their conversation.
They found themselves looking at a tall red-headed with big glasses and a short blue guy with a tail. Carrying obviously stolen artifacts from the Memorial room.
The four froze, looking at each other for a moment.
"Who are you and what are you doing?" Toren asked.
The blue guy scoffed. "What does it look like As-asg-asgar-"
"Asgardian." The red head corrected gently.
"Asgardian!"
"Well, what are you doing with those little elf?" Toren questioned.
All they held was stolen uniforms, no real use to anyone, especially since they had been ruined by Ultron.
"Elf? Elf?" The elf cried. "Hey, I look more like a demon!"
"Your father hated being called a demon." Red said, looking away from Toren and Azari.
"Well, then I'm a disappoinment to him then."
"No you're not--"
"Uh, hello?" Azari shook his his arms. "Sorry to interrupt, but can we get back to why you're stealing X-Men uniforms?"
The red head turned to him, turning their head at an angle. "You are the son of Storm."
The proclamation seemed to echo. The blue guy gasped. "You mean he is one of us?"
"One of who?" Azari asked.
"'One of us?'" They repeated. "What are we a cult? Huh, just port us out of here!"
"Well I wanted to do that from the beginning!" He cried.
"We weren't close enough yet!" They cried back.
Toren and Azari stood where they were, utterly confused. Finally, Toren pointed their sword at them.
"Giveth us the answer we seek." She ordered.
The red head turned to her. "We all want answers daughter of Thor and Sif. But the answers scare us too. Better to never know the questions to never fear the answers but to never know is terrible too as the weight pushes down on you as you know you should know what is about to happen but--"
As they spoke, the two new avengers felt a growing weight press down on them, weakening them.
"Azari...what is happening." Toren asked as she kneeled.
"Don't...know!" He said as he tried to push himself off the floor.
The Red Head had stopped talking yet the weight still pushed down. They turned to their little blue friend.
"What are you waiting for?" They asked.
The blue guy leaned back against the wall. "Enjoying this."
Red slapped his shoulder. He winced. "Okay. Okay."
In the next instance, a cloud of sulfuric blue smog engulfed them, at the same time the invisible weight vanished from Azari and Toren's shoulders.
The two roared as they were once again able to stand. "What was that?" Azari asked as they pounced through the cloud, only to find blue and red gone.
"They have vanished like my uncle Loki!" Toren said. "Tricksters vanishing into the mist."
"Well these trickers stole ruined hero suits. And had powers. And one was blue." Azari pointed out as he tried to find a way to track them. But the sulfur covered any other scent in the small, stuffy hallway. "And they're long gone."
Just then, blue boy reappeared in another cloud, right in front of Azari. With a smile, he grabbed the older boy's wrist (he looked about Pym's age) and teleported away again, taking the son of Black Panther and Storm with him.
Toren stood in silent shock a moment, having just had her brother disappear and being able to do nothing about it, when a voice rang through the hallway, the entire base.
Tony's voice rang from the speakers above her head.
"All new avengers to the meeting room. Now."