CHAPTER FOURTEEN ;
" honey, i shrunk myself "
" a chain reaction set in motion
now my whole world is caving in
we must be strong, it's only just
begun, it's not over yet
this battle's only begun "
✧ NOT OVER YET
(IT'S ONLY BEGUN)
the phantoms!
It's like a corny happy ending as everyone sits around the dining table in the little bit worn and torn Paxton-Lang household. As for the events that followed the bald psycho attack, well, Hank has been released from the hospital, Cassie has decided she wants to be a superhero, the Three Wombats are thinking about opening a business, Laurie's broken knee is in a pale blue cast already colorfully decorated by Cassie, the house has started renovating, relationships have been mended, and a chance to move forward seems bright on the horizon.
Now, Scott sits at the dinner table of a home he was kicked out of not even a month before. And naturally, once Scott was invited, Gordo immediately was too and now things couldn't be more perfect.
"Scott, I met with my captain today." Paxton breaks into the conversation with his elbows on the table and his face serious, "He wanted a report on the night that you got out of jail."
Gordo stops slurping his orange juice through his curly straw, Laurie pauses chewing her massive cheeseburger with her mouth wide open, and Scott quickly looks over at his daughters' soon to be step-father.
"Something happened with the cameras. Some circuits got fried." Paxton shrugs nonchalantly, "But I told him that you were processed correctly."
Laurie's jaw practically drops, honestly having expected the FBI, SHIELD, the CIA, or some other acronym to suddenly bust on up in here and cart her dad off to some crazy high-tech prison without warning. But this... this changes things!
"Really?" Scott's eyes slowly widen, pulling the napkin away from his face.
"Well, yeah." Paxton responds casually, acting like it's no big deal, "Can't be sending Laurie and Cassie's dad back to jail on a technical glitch, right?"
"I knew it." Laurie happily smiles and shrugs, proudly whispering to her best bud, "I told you Paxton was a good one."
Gordo just smirks and rolls his eyes at her, knowing she really didn't but being a good guy and letting her have it anyway.
Scott just shakes his head in disbelief, "Thank you, Paxton, I'm blown away!" His eyes grow even more sincere as he thanks him for his daughters' sakes, "Thank you for everything you do for Laurie and Cassie."
"Well, that's my pleasure." Paxton smiles at the two sisters before nodding back at Scott, "But, no. This one, I did for you."
They all smile and slowly look away, quietly sighing to themselves. And as the moment stretches on, Laurie uncomfortably taps her fingernails on the wooden tabletop and Gordo bounces his knee while Scott glances around and Cassie rests her head into Laurie's shoulder. No one really knows what to say now.
So, Scott finally breaks the silence with a very honest, "This is awkward."
"Totally weird." Laurie scrunches her lips and shakes her head.
"Yeah!" Cassie giddily agrees.
"Yeah, I mean, what do we even talk about after all of that?" Scott laughs, not quite used to this superhero life just yet.
"Oh, I know!" Laurie perks up excitedly, making everyone look at her expectedly.
"What?"
"Go on, Little Mama." Laurie gently nudges her sister, "Tell Dad what ya did."
Cassie's brown eyes get confused before she gasps in remembrance, "Oh yeah!" Her doe eyes turn to their father as she practically bursts, "Daddy, I did my first cartwheel today!"
"What?" Scott looks shocked.
"Yeah." Mom-o confirms with a proud smile, "Laurie has been helping her practice all week, but today was the magic day. I recorded it on my phone." Their mom quickly pulls her phone out to show him, "Here."
Eyes wide with pride, Scott teases, "No, that can't be Cassie! That's not you."
"Yeah, it is!" Cassie challenges with a giggle.
"Yeah, it is." Maggie confirms.
"This is a professional gymnast!" Scott continues to gush over his daughter, "There is no way that's you."
"One day, I'm gonna be as good as Laurie!" Cassie grins up at her big sister - the seven year old's role model for better or for worse.
Which it probably is for worse but hey, she's funny and she can make up for a lot with that going for her.
Goes gently nudged his best friend's shoulder and Laurie's cheeks blush as Scott winks at his oldest, "I don't doubt it, Peanut."
Laurie praises the good Lord on high when the conversation shifts away from her and back to Cassie's cartwheel. Attention is not as much fun when it's about good behavior! Give her all the attention in the world when she's being all angsty and rebellious, but when she does somethin' good, she splits, as her favorite nimrod so elegantly put it, faster than his father who left him years ago.
(Insert a moment of silence for poor Gordo here.)
But the girl still nods contentedly from her father to her little sister, pretty pleased with how everything shaped out. And her best friend just smiles at her smiling face, knowing that she isn't looking at him, knowing she can't see him. But she's happy, and that's enough to make him happy too.
The whole situation might have been a little sketchy at the beginning involving abandonment, blackmail, bad superhero names, a few felonies, and an attack by a man off his meds, but it was totally worth it. In fact, Laurie and Gordo are up for Round #2!
"Hey, look it's Henry!" Gordo happily grins when Scott's new giant pet ant pokes his head out from underneath the table, looking up at the three kids.
Groaning, Laurie frowns and rolls her eyes, "Ugh, Gordon! I have told you, my son, the ant's name is Pickles!"
"Oh, come on, no way! He even looks like a Henry!" Gordo fights back, turning to his best friend's little sister for backup, "Doesn't he, Cassio?"
"Totally!" Cassie happily agrees as she sits between the two best friends.
"Great! You've turned my own little sister against me, you monster!" Laurie hisses dramatically before narrowing her eyes down at her sister, "You ought to be ashamed of yourself, traitor!"
Cassie just shrugs and smiles sweetly before feeding Henry some of her cheeseburger with a soft whispered, "Good boy."
"Sweetie-," Scott cuts in on the youngsters' conversation, still smiling, "That's pretty amazing, Peanut."
Cassie looks so proud of herself as Gordo laughs a little and Laurie kisses the seven year old's forehead.
But then their dude's phone suddenly starts to ring and he makes a surprised face, pulling it out only to cringe in apology.
"Sorry." His eyes dart to his oldest daughter, "It's work."
Ah, the mysterious codeword: 'work'. Superhero work. The work of a superhero. A hero's duty. Leapin' lizards, what Laurie wouldn't give to do a little of that superhero's day job.
"Well, answer it, Dad." The fifteen year old casually shrugs, poking her french fry into her ketchup and giving him a teasing smirk, "The world's not gonna save itself, pal."
Smiling knowingly, Scott winks at her and waves goodbye to Cassie before answering the call. But as he walks out the front door, her playful smirk fades and she sighs a little to herself, knowing that he's going to leave without her, knowing that she's still plain girl Laurie Lang, that her life is still on the path to ordinariness.
STIIIILLLL, Laurie just hopes her good ol' dad doesn't get into any kind of trouble like getting arrested or attacking the Avengers or anything.
Hah, wouldn't that just suck?
♢ ♢ ♢
One week later, Laurie LaRue Lang is living the dream! She's living it up in San Fran. She's doing the job of a hero. She is on a mission!
Actually no, that's what Hank and Hope tried to hype her up into believing so she would go grab some more supplies for the Wasp suit. When she and Gordo agreed to assist her new mentors, she really didn't think this is what they'd be doing. Really, she's just the message bro, the delivery gal, the glorified FedEx homie, if you will.
Though, to be fair, it does distract her from thinking about where the hecko her dad could've gone ever since he went AWOL a few days back. He so suspiciously said it was "work" and then he was gone - disappeared, dematerialized, zap-o, vamoosed, absconded.
When she sees Scott again, Laurie is so gonna enjoy sassing him. She's even come up with some new good one-liners. She's been making a list in his absence. It helps cope with the pain.
Despite her troubles and Gordo's distinct dislike for being oh yes, wait a minute, Mr. Postman (yeeeaAAhhh), Laurie is a true and noble warrior, willing to take a hit for the team and go all the way down to the basement to grab a vile of the Pym Particle for replication purposes or whatever. And after a minor detour to the kitchen to snack on some Cheetos and Dr. Pepper, she and her crutches were happily on their way!
Well, minus the 'happily' part. She was more like, 'fine, sure, make the cripple do all the work!' You know, it's really a hard knock life for girls like Laurie. People these days, I'm tellin' ya. They have no common decency.
The girl huffs as she moves into the lab and towards the big metal shelves filled with the blue Pym Particle vials. Flipping her dark brown hair out of her eyes, Laurie leans against a work table and stretches up to grab one of the vials with the blue - but she's just not close enough. Her fingers wiggle desperately and she grunts as she leans further and further, looking like she's just about fall completely into the shelves. But then her fingers finally curl around the vial and she safely leans back against the table, sighing in great relief.
Giving a satisfied nod down at the vial, Laurie considers her mission: successful.
Moving her crutch under her arm, the fifteen year old turns towards the exit on the other side of the room. She still has that victorious smile on her freckled face when her crutch suddenly shifts and her knee goes out from under her without warning.
It all happens in slow motion.
Laurie watches with wide terrified eyes as she begins to fall and the vial with the Pym Particle slips from her hands. Her body hits with the ground and she yelps when her forehead meets the cold concrete so hard that she doesn't notice that the glass vial has shattered, the blue serum splashing on her face and oozing across the floor and slithering towards her.
The smell of sulfur fills the air and her eyes involuntarily water while her chin and her forehead ache. Groaning a little, the fifteen year old winces and painfully lifts her head only to witness the Pym Particle flowing into her hands.
"Uh oh." Laurie whispers, voice low, eyes deadly, throat tight, "This ain't gonna be good."
And she's right. This ain't gonna be good.
The thick blue serum immediately begins to seep into Laurie's skin and the blue speckles sink into the pores on her face. She sharply hisses when her palms and her cheeks start to burn, trying desperately to shake and rub the serum off her.
But it's too late.
It's far too late now.
Laurie watches in disgusted horror as the deep vibrant blue serum clearly travels up through her veins, infecting her body one blood cell at a time.
But she thinks it'll just go away. It'll just go away, right? It has to go away!
It doesn't.
The tingling begins in her fingertips and continues to spread throughout her entire body. Then the muscles in her eye starts to twitch and her hands start to turn a deep dark purple. A thin sheen of perspiration covers her goosebumped skin and her sweaty brows are furrowed in terrified realization that this is way worse than she thought.
Her dizzy head hurts so bad it feels like it's gonna explode and what almost looks like flashing colors and lights stain her view. Her whole body feels like it's itching, like ants are crawling all over her and she just can't make it stop. Her joints begin to swell and ache, and it grows hard to breathe when her chest clenches up with her heart beating wildly inside it.
That's when the spasms start.
Seizures rack through Laurie's long frame, her head jerking back and forth as her limbs violently twist at odd angles. Her muscles begin to stretch and tear and shudder and retract, and blood begins to drip out of her ears. And Laurie tries to cry for help, but her voice won't make a sound and her tongue can't seem to form any words.
Foam bubbles and leaks out of her mouth as her body convulses and writhes on the floor. It's like her body is drawing in on itself, flesh consuming flesh as it eats her up and ravages her figure. And she knows she isn't going to make it out, that whatever's happening, it's gonna take her whole.
Her fingernails desperately claw into the concrete and she finally belts out an agonized scream, just trying to get someone to hear her
- for someone to finally hear her -
before Laurie Lang shrinks entirely.
END OF PART ONE
Laurie Lang Will Return
Okay so THAT just happened. Like wow. It was all fun and chill and kind of bland and then BAM, I hit ya all with that craziness. I'm not sure if that was super confusing for ya, my dudes, but this was the major plot twist I was talking about. For all of Laurie's wishing to get a suit, she really isn't going to need one because NOW Laurie Lang is basically a suit herself. That's right, folks. Through much pain, Laurie now has the ability to shrink and grow all on her own.
And THAT'S where we're gonna pick up on when we find Laurie two years later in Ant-Man and the Wasp. Agh boy, is she about to get into a lot of trouble. I have so much I'm looking forward to and I hope you are to - you're going to see Laurie's powers close up, Gordo's feelings become clear, Hope is going to become the Wasp, Scott is on house arrest, more father-daughter drama, Laurie-Gordo tension, Ghost, Luis and the truth serum, ahh yesss there's so much to look forward to!
Let me know your thoughts on this chapter! And let me know what you want to see NEXT when we pick up again! Love you all soooo much, thanks for sticking with me!
And a gift for you, a lovely Funny Thingamabob:
Agh who else is excited about Part 2???