Ultimate Marvel System

Chapter 74: Ant-man

AN: Sorry for the delay. Was busy trying to rewatch GoTG and the whole Infinity War to refresh my memory since they will be happening soon-ish.

Also needed to reread this since I may have forgotten some details...and I did. Turns out, I already introduced Ant-man back in the Apocalypse arc and completely forgot about him...so I tried to rewrite a bunch of things but then it would be too different now so I just removed Ant-Man in the Apocalypse arc. He didn't do much there anyway.

So this will be the chapter where he will be appearing first.

That's all. Enjoy!

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Chapter 74: Ant-man

A few hours ago, while Benjamin was busy dealing with Sublime and the prisoners, Spider-man and Spider-woman both volunteered to deal with a situation downtown where two potentially enhanced individuals with the ability to shrink have been seen fighting.

Having appeared nearby, they quickly heard the sounds of explosions and sprang into action, shooting webs onto the buildings and pulling themselves up to start swinging.

As they swung, Spider-woman sneered at Spider-man and started their banter.

“No need for you to go, I’m more than enough to handle this.”

“No, you stay! I’m more than enough!”

“No you!”

“No you you!”

They two kept up this childish bickering as they arrived at the scene.

When they saw the situation, the two looked amazed at the fight.

After all, they haven’t seen anyone with powers to shrink so seeing this red-clad figure and yellow-clad figure shrinking and growing while fighting was quite a new experience for them.

What’s more, the red one was throwing some shuriken-like gadgets and when it hits an object, it either shrinks or embiggens.

The yellow one seemed to have a more high-tech suit as it has arms on its back that can shoot lasers.

The two Spider heroes were only shocked for a second before intervening in the fight.

“Hands up! This is the EPD! You have been surrounded! Surrender or we will open fire!”

“You don’t even have a gun, idiot.”

“I know. I just always wanted to say that.”

Spider-man shrugged and without waiting for the answers of the two fighting figures, he shot two wide webs shaped into a net from his webshooter.

His web shooter has long since been upgraded and had plenty of trick webs on it. The net web was just one of them.

Seeing the oncoming net, the red figure quickly pressed a button on his hand and shrunk down, passing through the gaps on the web.

As for the yellow figure, he just snorted and shot lasers to destroy the web.

“Stay out of this Spider-man!”

“Sorry, no can do. This is my job!”

“Then I’ll just have to squash you too!”

The yellow figure glared and shot his laser toward Spider-man who easily dodged it with a flip and a swing.

Not wanting to be outdone. Spider-woman swung at the yellow figure with a swinging kick.

“Hey! I’m also here you know!”

“More insects!”

The yellow figure was angered as he blocked the kick with his arms.

He then suddenly shrunk down, causing Spider-woman to falter for a moment, and using this opportunity, the yellow figure embiggened once more while doing an uppercut.

Thankfully, Spider-woman sensed it in half a second and did a flip to soften the blow.

At this time, Spider-man swung a punch with perfect timing while keeping up with his banter.

“Speaking of insects, you look like a bee. Are you called Bee-man?”

The yellow figure grunted as he took the blow.

“The name’s Yellowjacket!”

Hearing that, both Spider-man and Spider-woman paused.

“Yellow Jacket? Cause…what, you wear a yellow suit?”

“Is the other guy called Red Jacket?”

Suddenly, the red figure grew back to normal size and argued.

“I’m Ant-man! Not Red Jacket!”

Spider-man tilted his head.

“Ant-man? Cause you’re small and you’re red? Like ants?”

“Well…yeah. That and I can also control ants. Well, not control. More like, I can speak to them…which now that I say it, it sounds crazy…”

Spider-woman turned to Spider-man.

“How come you can’t talk to spiders?”

“Hey! You’re also called Spider-woman!”

“What do you mean? I can talk to spiders.”

“Seriously!?”

“They don't answer back though.”

“...”

Spider-man was a bit speechless. He knew that she was messing with him just as always.

At the side, Yellowjacket raised his hand.

“Umm, are we still fighting or…?”

“Shut up! We’re talking here!”

Spider-man and Spider-woman both shot their webs at Yellowjacket to shut him up and restrain him.

Then, they turned back to Ant-man.

“So how does that work? You just talk to them and they do what you want?”

“Well, yeah. Basically, I have this neat gadget on my ear that transmits some thingy-majig that the ants can understand. But it’s not as easy as it sounds. It’s hard to control a lot of ants.”

“So it’s tech? Not powers?”

Spider-woman asked.

“Yeah. I’m just a normal guy. That guy too. It’s the suit that enables us to shrink and grow. Well, not the suit but these vials here.”

And so the three started to discuss just like that.

Yellowjacket was speechless for a moment.

Are we really not going to fight? How about my evil masterplan? Is this the right script?

After a while, Spider-man and Spider-woman’s curiosity has been sated and they quickly webbed Ant-man as well.

“Hey! I thought we were bonding there!”

“It’s fine. We’ll visit you in prison and continue to bond there.”

“...”

Ant-man didn’t know what to say.

Just like that, the two of them captured Ant-man and Yellowjacket and went back to HQ.

When they came back, they found out that the other members were betting on who will catch the criminal among the two of them but since the ‘fight’ turned out in such a way, they can’t settle on the winner.

“I’m obviously the winner. Look, my web is on them more!”

“You just added extra webbing! I was the one who webbed them up first! I won!”

Spider-woman refuted.

And so brings us to the present where Benjamin found the two of them bickering as usual with the restrained Ant-man and Yellowjacket behind them.

Benjamin knew better than get in between these two kids so he turned to Ant-man and Yellowjacket.

“And? Why are you two fighting?”

“Uhh, it’s a long story.”

“Let me guess. Hank Pym asked you to steal his suit to see if you are worthy of donning the Ant-man name and so you can steal Yellowjacket’s suit before it is completed and since Yellowjacket is planning on mass producing the suit for military use, he wore the suit to stop you and started fighting? Am I close?”

“...”

“...”

Both Ant-man and Yellowjacket were speechless.

“Well…pretty much, yeah.”

Ant-man nodded.

Benjamin just chuckled.

“I’ve actually been keeping a close eye on you, Darren Cross. If Ant-man hadn’t stepped up first, I would’ve stopped you myself. Besides, there’s something I want from you.”

“...What do you want?”

Darren Cross, AKA Yellowjacket, frowned as he asked.

His mask was still on and he was surprised that Benjamin already knew his identity.

What’s more, he also knew about Hank Pym.

Benjamin smiled.

“The Ten Rings. I know you have some dealings with them. They don’t leave much digital footprints so it’s hard to track them down.”

“...I have no idea what you are talking about.”

“See, now I know you know something. But that’s fine. I don’t need you to say anything when I can just read your mind.”

“!!!”

It only took a moment for Benjamin to glance through his memories and shook his head.

Darren didn’t know much. It was usually the Ten Rings who reaches out to him.

But he does know a contact that Benjamin can try his luck on.

After that, Benjamin called for someone to take Darren away and put him in a cell.

He then turned to Ant-man.

“As for you.”

“Y-yes?”

“Don’t worry, there’s no need to lock you up. However, you did damage some properties so you have two choices. You pay for all the damages you caused or join the EPD. The EPD will pay for the damages on your behalf but your salary will be deducted for a year.”

“I’m joining!”

“Good.”

Benjamin nodded and finally turned to the two Spiders.

“Alright, enough of that you two. Spider-man, don’t you have homework to do?”

“Uhh…”

Spider-man chuckled awkwardly.

It was true that he has been procrastinating.

Benjamin then turned to Spider-woman.

“And you. We need to talk.”

“A-about what?”

“About where you’re truly from.”

“...”

Spider-woman opened her mouth to say something but didn’t know what to say at the moment.

Does…he know?

Meanwhile, in a certain section of a certain galaxy.

A blonde-haired man wearing a peculiar helmet could be seen dancing on a remote planet alone. On his ears were a pair of earphones connected to a walkman on his waist.

Although his dancing looked cool with the accompaniment of music, only he could hear the music so to anyone looking at him, he just looks like a lunatic.

Well, there’s no one to comment on it though.

At the end of his dance, he arrived at an ancient-looking ruin.

There, he saw a pedestal in the middle that is surrounded by some forcefield. On top of the pedestal, a silver orb with strange engravings could be seen floating on it.

This was none other than the orb that housed the Power Stone, one of the Six Infinity Stones!

And the man about to get it…is none other than Peter Quil, AKA, Star Lord!

At the same time, in another part of the galaxy, on an unknown planet.

A large throne floated at a high pedestal.

Beneath the throne were hundreds of thousands of Chittauri soldiers.

And sitting on that throne was a large man with purple skin.

His closed eyes opened slowly and a grin appeared on his face.

“It’s time, Ebony Maw. Odin is soon reaching his end.”

The man stood up and walked to a container beside him.

The container opened up slowly, revealing a golden gauntlet.

He reached out on it and wore the gauntlet.

“Prepare the ship.”

“Where to, my lord?”

“Earth. It’s time I collect what is mine.”

Hearing this, Ebony Maw smiled and bowed.

“As it should be, my lord Thanos.”

Thanos grinned slightly as he looked out into the cosmos.

“Soon, my love…Death shall embrace everyone…!”

Meanwhile, inside a certain room, a certain loli suddenly sneezed.

“Achoo!”

“My lady, are you okay?”

Hela asked worriedly.

“I’m fine. It’s just a sneeze. I wonder who’s talking about me…”

“Huh?”

“Look, in animes, it’s normally like that!”

“...”

Death has been completely turned into an otaku.

Once again, Hela doubted herself if following Death was really the right choice…

Just like that, certain events began to unravel.

Benjamin, still having no idea of what’s about to come, is currently facing Gwen Stacy in his office.