12 Ant-Man Natural Enemy

by Jason Starr

  She made it to the second floor and ran down the hallway toward the gym, again passing some oncoming shoes and other objects. Then she saw Mr. Griffin, her math teacher, talking to another teacher. Cassie stopped and listened in on some of their conversation. They weren’t talking about anything interesting, just some TV show they’d both been binge-watching—but it would be so cool to follow her teachers around all the time, and her classmates, too, to hear all the things they talked about when she wasn’t there. It was like being invisible, but so much more awesome.

  She would’ve loved to find Tucker McKenzie, spy on him all day, and find out what he really thought about her. But she knew she didn’t have a lot of time. Roger had probably figured out she was missing, and it wouldn’t be long before they called her father. She had to get home and put the Ant-Man suit back in the safe before her father figured out that she’d taken it.

  In gym, all the kids were lined up for a basketball drill to practice layups. Cassie sucked at basketball—she was glad she was missing this. She spotted Nikki in line, talking to Keely, one of Nikki’s friends.

  “I don’t know. I don’t want to,” Nikki said

  “Come on, it’ll be so much fun,” Keely said.

  “Yeah, maybe, I don’t know,” Nikki said.

  “You’ll change your mind,” Keely said.

  Cassie had no idea what they were talking about. She would’ve loved to listen in on the rest of the conversation, wait for them to say something juicy, but she didn’t want to waste any time. So she jumped onto the back of Nikki’s waistband—which seemed gigantic, of course. Then, grabbing onto the gym shorts with both hands, she leaped off—as if she were skydiving off a mountain—holding on to the elastic the whole time. Sure enough, the shorts came down, and Nikki was left standing in her panties in front of everybody.

  Nikki was shocked and confused. She made it worse for herself by screeching, so soon all the kids in the gym were looking over at her and laughing. Cassie was laughing, too. She leapt off the elastic just as Nikki was yanking her pants back on.

  “Oh my god, why did you do that to me?” Nikki asked Kelly.

  “What?” Keely said. “I didn’t do anything.”

  The gym teacher—Coach Jill, who was always strict and kind of nasty—came over and said, “What’s going on here?”

  “Keely pulled down my shorts,” Nikki said.

  “I did not,” Keely said.

  Nikki and Keely continued to bicker about it, and Jill warned them that they would have to sit out the rest of the class if they didn’t behave. Meanwhile, Cassie and the other kids in the gym were still laughing. Too bad Tucker McKenzie wasn’t there—that would have been so perfect.

  Coach Jill blew her whistle, and the basketball drill continued. Then Cassie had another idea. There were a bunch of basketballs off to the side, not far from the basket where Nikki was practicing. Cassie moved behind a ball, which looked as huge as a Ferris wheel to her; when Nikki approached the basket and was about to shoot a layup, Cassie threw it at her. Cassie only meant to freak Nikki out and make her miss the shot. But Cassie still had a lot to learn about controlling her strength and movements as Ant-Man, or Ant-Girl, or whoever she was. She winged the ball much harder than she intended, and it smashed into Nikki’s nose. She heard a loud crunch.

  Nikki was screaming and crying as blood gushed from her nose onto the gym floor. Coach Jill hadn’t seen what had happened, but assumed Keely was involved and shouted at her to go to the principal’s office. She instructed another kid, Julien, to go get the school nurse. Then Coach Jill tended to Nikki, trying to calm her down. She told the other kids to leave the gym and go to the cafeteria.

  Cassie felt awful. She hadn’t meant to actually hurt Nikki—she’d just wanted to scare her a little.

  “Oh my god, I’m so sorry,” she said, and then she saw what looked like a huge blob of blood coming toward her. She darted out of the way before the blood reached her—that would have been so gross.

  Then panic set in. All this time, since she’d gotten the idea to borrow the Ant-Man suit, she’d been so excited about seeing the world from the point of view of an ant and discovering all these cool powers that she hadn’t really thought about the possible consequences. She’d hurt Nikki, probably broken her nose, but what if she’d done something even worse? She just wanted to go home and put away the Ant-Man suit before anyone found out—or she caused even more trouble.

  She darted across the gym floor, past the school nurse who was rushing to Nikki’s aid, and then continued along the hallway, going along the wall to stay out of the way of the crowd of students. At the end of the hallway, she saw Tucker McKenzie and stopped.

  She recognized his sneakers first, his orange-and-blue New York Knicks-colored Nikes, and then she looked up at his face. Even from this weird angle, he was unbelievably cute. He was obviously talking about what had happened in the gym. “Who did it?” he asked, and another guy said, “Nobody knows,” and another guy said, “Somebody was sayin’ the ball just flew up and hit her all by itself,” and then Tucker said, “Man, that’s so crazy.”

  Cassie zoomed in on Tucker’s face. No wonder she had such a big crush on him. He was the hottest guy she’d ever seen.

  Then the Nike came down on top of her, and she was wedged into a gap in the bottom of the sole. She was trapped again, like being in a dark jail cell. She wasn’t scared, though—just frustrated.

  “Come on, move, Tucker,” Cassie said. “I gotta get out of here.”

  Finally, after maybe a minute, Tucker walked away, probably heading to his next class. Cassie went down the stairs, ran toward the front of the school, skidding as she turned, and then exited.

  She ran along First Avenue, avoiding obstacles like before, and then she saw her dad—and Roger behind him—running toward the school. Had her dad found out about the Ant-Man suit? She was going to be in such big trouble—the most trouble she’d ever been in.

  She crossed the streets, noticing more ants out, and made it back to her apartment building. She jumped up the stairs, step by step, as fast as she could. Her father was looking for her at school, and when he didn’t find her there, he’d come back home. She had to turn back to normal size and put away the Ant-Man suit before that happened. Finally, she made it to the fifth floor. She saw George, the building super, coming toward her.

  He seemed angry about something. He stopped walking and looked down, his gaze zeroing in on her. This was the first time since she’d shrunk that a human had looked right at her, and this huge face staring at her was terrifying. Then he grimaced and said, “Damn bugs,” and his huge-looking black shoe was coming down fast toward her. He was trying to squash her.

  She missed his shoe—which seemed to make the whole floor shake—by an instant. She was afraid that if he got a good look at her he’d realize that she wasn’t actually a bug. She slipped under the door to her apartment to safety.

  Well, sort-of safety. There was still that minor step of returning to normal size. She pressed the little levers in her sleeves simultaneously, figuring this would do the trick, but nothing happened. She tried pushing them in the opposite direction, but nothing happened.

  “Please,” she said. “Come on.” She was starting to panic, afraid she’d never be able to return to normal size again.

  She maneuvered the levers every which way, but still nothing happened—not even the buzzing sensation like before. She just wanted to get out of the suit, but she was afraid to, at this size. She wanted to be strong, to not cry, but her lips were quivering and a few tears dripped down her cheeks.

  The front door opened, and her dad entered. He looked gigantic, but she was getting used to seeing people from this angle.

  “Dad!” she called out. “Dad, I’m over here! Daddy!”

  He couldn’t hear her, of course. She felt like she was in one of those frustrating dreams, where you want to do something or get somewhere but you keep getting distracted, or aren’t fast or strong enough,
and the thing you want to do never gets done. Except that this wasn’t a dream—this was a full-blown nightmare.

  Her dad went right to the closet, checking the safe, so he must’ve somehow figured out that she’d taken the suit. That was a good thing, she realized, because he would try to find it. Sure enough, he dropped down on his hands and knees. She yelled, “Dad, over here! Over here!”

  And then Roger entered the apartment. Her dad made up an excuse that he was looking for his keys and managed to get Roger to leave him alone.

  “Cassie? Cassie, where the hell are you?”

  She’d never heard her dad sound so upset.

  “Here, Daddy!” She was jumping, waving her arms. “Right here.”

  She ran right in front of him, and he saw her.

  “Cassie. There you are.”

  He held out his giant hand, and she jumped into it. Then he lifted it up toward his face. His eyes were glassy, bloodshot.

  Yeah, she was in big trouble all right.

  Huge.

  SCOTT was thrilled, angry, and terrified. He was thrilled that he’d found Cassie, angry that she’d put him through a morning of hell, and terrified that he’d never be able to restore her to normal human size.

  “For god’s sake, Cassie,” he said, looking down at his miniature daughter in the palm of his hand. “Why did you do this? Why?”

  He didn’t expect her to respond. It was difficult to figure out how to modulate your voice in the Ant-Man suit; it was impressive enough that she’d figured out how to shrink and get around. She was a smart kid, but she was also fearless—a dangerous combination.

  “Never mind,” he said. “I’m sure there’s a reason, but I don’t care about that right now. I just want to help you, do you understand me?”

  He could barely see her head, but he could tell she was nodding,

  “Good. Now I’m going to put you back onto the floor, and I want you to do exactly what I tell you, okay?”

  Again she nodded.

  He rested his hand on the floor, and she jumped off. This was his baby, the most important thing in his life, and she was about half the size of a pencil eraser. As a father, he’d never felt so powerless.

  “Don’t worry, everything’s going to be okay. I promise.”

  But the thing was, he had no idea whether everything would be okay. He was in uncharted territory. He’d never had to explain to anyone how to use the Ant-Man suit, and the only one who’d taught him was Hank Pym. But Cassie was a teenager, she was still growing, and she was a woman. He had no idea how these variables would affect the technology.

  “Okay.” His voice was trembling, but he couldn’t help it. “You need to activate the expanding gas. What I want you to do is touch those control levers in the sleeve. You found them already, I’m sure, but what you want to do this time is hold them down for a count of five and, at the same time, bend your head down with your chin against your neck. Okay, on the count of five. One, two—”

  Something slammed into Scott like an uppercut to the jaw. He catapulted backwards and crashed into the closet door. It took a few seconds to orient himself and realize that he’d been hit by the helmet of the Ant-Man suit as Cassie returned to human size.

  Scott was dazed, but managed to get up. He grabbed her arms and said, “Cassie, are you okay? Say something to me. Please.”

  “I…I’m fine, Daddy.”

  He could tell she was scared. Her calling him “Daddy” got to him. Always did; always would.

  “Thank god.” He hugged her as tight as he could without hurting her and said, “You have no idea how worried I was.”

  “I—I’m so sorry. I’ll never do anything like that again. I—I swear, Daddy.”

  He lifted off the helmet and shook her. “Are you okay? How do you feel?”

  “I feel totally normal. I mean, like, physically.”

  “Are you sure? Every organ in your body, including your brain, shrank and expanded again. Who knows what effect that could have on you?”

  “I know, but I’m totally fine, I swear.”

  “Where were you born?”

  “What?”

  “What city were you born in?”

  “San Francisco.”

  “What was the name of your first dog?”

  “Duncan. I told you, I’m fine, Dad.”

  “I hope so. I seriously hope so.”

  “What’re you so worried about, anyway?” Cassie asked. “You do this all the time, right?”

  “Yes, but I’m an adult,” Scott said. “You’re still growing. I have no idea what effect this could have on you. It’s uncharted territory, and it’s dangerous, and it’s nothing you should’ve done on your own.”

  “I feel normal,” she said. “Just a little stupid, I guess.”

  Now that he knew that she was okay, and apparently unharmed, Scott’s anger was kicking in.

  “Why did you do this?” he said. “The suit isn’t a toy, Cassie. I’ve told you that how many times? I thought I could trust you.”

  “You can trust me.”

  “Can I? You haven’t done a great job of proving that to me today. What if I didn’t find you? What if somebody else found you? What if you got injured or killed? Didn’t you even think about that?”

  “Honestly, no,” she said.

  “See, that’s the problem. You can’t live your life this way! You can’t be a risk-taker. Risk-takers wind up dead.”

  Scott knew he was being hypocritical, of course. For most of his life, he’d been a huge risk-taker and adrenaline junkie.

  But that was him. This was different. This was his daughter.

  “I just wanted to play a prank on somebody,” Cassie said.

  “A prank?” he said. “What kind of prank?”

  “I know how stupid it’s gonna sound now,” she said, “but I was angry and…well, I didn’t actually expect it to work.”

  “So this prank was on me?” Scott asked.

  “No, somebody at school.”

  Scott remembered seeing the ants at the school and the girl with the broken nose in the nurse’s office.

  “Wait,” he said, “did you hurt somebody?”

  “Not intentionally,” Cassie said. “I just wanted to throw a basketball at Nikki and—”

  “What if somebody saw you? You were small, but you weren’t invisible.”

  “Nobody saw me.”

  “Trust me, somebody always sees something. Especially nowadays. So now they think a basketball, all by itself, hit Nikki in the nose? What if somebody filmed it on their phone? It could be all over Instagram or YouTube now, going viral.”

  “Nobody filmed it. They think this other girl Keely did it.”

  “And what happens when Keely denies it? This isn’t something to joke around about. There are serious consequences, especially right now when we’re under an order of protection.”

  “It’s not all my fault,” Cassie said.

  “What do you mean? How do you—”

  “If it wasn’t for you, none of this would’ve happened,” she said. “You’re the one who has the stupid Ant-Man suit, you’re the one under the protection order. You’re the one with all the secrets—I just have to keep them for you.”

  Cassie was crying. Scott hated seeing her get so upset. Besides, she had a point.

  “Okay, you’re right,” Scott said. “I was just scared, that’s all. You mean everything to me. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

  “I—I’ll never do it again.” She was sobbing now. “I promise. I promise.”

  Scott held her, swearing that everything would be okay, and that they’d put all this behind them.

  Then, when she was calming down, he said, “So…how did it feel to be Ant-Man?”

  “Unbelievable,” she said.

  “I know, right?” Scott said.

  “I mean, you used to tell me stories about about how cool things look, like from that perspective, but until I saw it for myself I had no idea. And the strength
—”

  “Yeah, it was the same way when I was Ant-Man the first time,” Scott said, remembering the day Hank Pym had showed him how to use the suit. “I’m still amazed you figured out how to move, get around. It took me a week to get used to it.”

  “I don’t know, I guess it just came to me naturally,” Cassie said. “Um, but by the way, it’s Ant-Girl, not Ant-Man.”

  Scott smiled. Cassie went on, describing how she’d learned to run and jump, get up and down stairs, and her experiences observing the behavior of ants. Scott chimed in with anecdotes about how he’d learned to speak in a normal-sounding voice, even while ant-sized, and how he’d learned over time to communicate with ants. As upset as he was at Cassie for stealing the suit and putting herself in danger, he had to admit it was invigorating to talk to her about her experiences. Other than Hank Pym, Scott had never talked to anyone who’d experienced this, and the fact that he could talk about this with his daughter made it even cooler. He’d always felt closest to her when they were doing something techie together, building something or taking it apart—but lately, since she’d become a teenager, they hadn’t been as close. It was nice to have another thing to bond with her over.

  “Can I do it again sometime, Dad?” Cassie asked.

  “Maybe,” Scott said, “when you’re twenty-one. And you’re going to have to figure out some way to make this up to Nikki.”

  “How?” Cassie said. “I can’t tell her the truth.”

  “No, but you can make it up to her karmically,” Scott said. “You can send her a get-well card, help her with her studying, do something nice for her.”

  “But Dad, she’s been so mean to me lately,” Cassie said. “That’s why I wanted to get revenge in the first place.”

  “Well, you’re going to have to find another way to work out your differences,” Scott said. “Oh, and you’re grounded. No going out with your friends at all. You can only leave the apartment to go to school, and after school you come right home.”

  “This isn’t fair.”

  “After what you did today, you’re getting off easy. And you can have your phone with you at school for safety, but no phone at home for a week.”