The Soulmate Initiative: Book 2

1. The day things change

LOCATION: U-STORE-IT

In a self storage unit, a rat runs along the controls in Scott Lang's van, that allows him to travel into the Quantum Realm. He's thrown out and falls amongst loads of belongings, groaning. He retracts his helmet and gets to his feet, looking around in confusion "What the hell? Hope?" A security guard spots him on a camera, holding up a sign saying 'help!' After he's rescued, he discovers that the world isn't like he left it. There aren't many people around and everyone's miserable. He tries to find out where the Avengers are and how to get in contact with them, so he can get some answers.

LOCATION: AVENGERS MANSION

The Avengers have been spending the last five years doing what they always do, just less enthusiastically and with more worries, more concerned that they could lose another family member at any moment. Things haven't been looking good for the one child who survived the snap. Lucy has been very unwell ever since and hasn't gotten any better, they've tried every Doctor, but none of them know what's wrong or how to help the now 5 year old. But she's not the only child in the family at the moment, Tasia gave birth to a girl she named Frigga, who's now 2 years old. She's perfectly healthy and happy, not yet understanding anything bad going on in the world around her. And Prisha is nearly 8 and a half months pregnant, they don't know what she'll be having, they want it to be a surprise. They all put on brave faces for their children, but they are broken. They want their family back and they aren't stopping about how to do so, but they just can't seem to figure it out. Penelope Coulson, Ashley and Regina spend almost the entirety of everyday exhausting possibilities, they've even encouraged Rocket to take them out in his ship and gone on week long trips out in space to see if the answer lays out there somewhere.

Nian is currently sitting in lounge, across from four holograms, one is of Nebula and Rocket, another of Okoye of Wakanda, Carol Danvers and the last is of Penelope Coulson. Rocket is reporting in "Yeah. We boarded that highly suspect warship Danvers pinged." Nebula adds "It was an infectious garbage scow." "So, thanks for the hot tip." Carol shrugs "Well, you were closer." "Yeah. And now we smell like garbage." Nian asks Okoye "You get a reading on those tremors?" "Twas a mild subduction under the African plate." "Do we have a visual? How are we handling it?" "Nian, it's an earthquake under the ocean. We handle it by not handling it." "Carol, are we seeing you here next month?" "Not likely." Rocket pokes "What? You gonna get another haircut?" Carol, who's hair is much shorter than five years previous, turns on him, quite calmly "Listen, fur face. I'm covering a lot of territory. The things that are happening on Earth are happening everywhere. On thousands of planets." "Alright, alright. That's a good point. That's a good point." "So you might not see me for a long time." Nian nods in understanding "Alright. Um, well... this channel's always active. So, if anything goes sideways... anyone's making trouble where they shouldn't... comes through me." They all agree, then as Carol turns off, she says "Good luck." The others disappear too.

Stacey arrives home, having been out all day so far, she walks over to Nian and hugs him "I saw a pod of whales when I was coming over the bridge?" Nian pulls back to look her in the eyes, and notices she isn't joking "There's fewer ships. Cleaner water." They just stay in silence for a while, just hugging, trying to think about the good, but they can't focus. Nian whispers "I used to have nothing. And then I got this. This job, this family. And I was better because of it. And even though they're gone, I'm still trying to be better." Suddenly a device chimes and they pull out of the hug, Nian opens camera footage of Scott Lang "Og, hi. Hi! Uh, is anyone home? This is, uh, Scott Lang. We met a few years ago at the airport in Germany? I was the guy that got really big. I had a mask on. You wouldn't recognise me." Stacey asks "Is this an old message?" Scott continues "Ant Man. I know you know that." Nian shakes his head "It's the front gate." "I really need to talk to you guys." They let him in.

Stacey, Nian, Tasia, little Frigga, Lucy, Warren, Prisha and Lavina, who Scott keeps getting distracted by, gather in the lounge, all seated, as Scott paces in front of them, muttering to himself a bit, after just being filled in on what happened 5 years ago. Stacey grabs his attention "Scott. Are you okay?" "Yeah." But he doesn't seem okay. He takes a deep breath "Have any of you ever studied quantum physics?" Nian comments "Only to make conversation." "Alright, so, five years ago, right before... Thanos. I was in a place called the Quantum Realm. The Quantum Realm is like its own microscopic universe. To get in there, you have ro be incredibly small. Hope, she's my, um... She was my..." He shakes his head "She was supposed to pull me out. And then Thanos happened and I got stuck in there." Stacey gives him a small smile "Im sorry, that must have been a very long five years." "Yeah, but that's just it. It wasn't. For me, it was five hours. See, the rules of the Quantum Realm aren't like they are up here. Everything is unpredictable." Tasia asks "What are you talking about?" "What I'm saying is, time works differently in the Quantum Realm. The only problem is right now we don't have a way to navigate it. But what if we did? I can't stop thinking about it. What if we could somehow control the chaos and we could navigate it? What if there was a way that we could enter the Quantum Realm at a certain point in time, but then exit the Quantum Realm at another point in time? Like... like before Thanos." Stacey holds up a hand "Wait, are you talking about a time machine?" "No. No, of course not. No, not a time machine. This is more like a..." He waves his hands around, trying to think of a name for it, but then gives up "Yeah. Like a time machine. I know, it's crazy. It's crazy. But I can't stop thinking about it. There gotta be... some way..." He sighs "It's crazy." Nian breaks the silence "It's not. I get emails from a raccoon. So nothing sounds crazy anymore." Scott then asks "So, who do we talk to about this?" Stacey calls for Penelope, Ashley and Regina to come home.