In a room filled with technological inventions, an old man carefully handled a device no larger than the palm of his hand.
Despite its perfectly portable size, if one looked closely, they would notice that the device was made up of millions of tiny pieces, perfectly assembled and working in harmony, as if a miniature person had built it with extreme precision.
And in fact, that was true. The old man, Hank Pym, had created it using his miniaturization technology based on Pym particles.
At that moment, he was nervous. He doubted whether his choice was the right one.
He remained still for over half an hour, lost in thought, until he finally made a decision.
With a replica of his old yellow suit, specially made for this purpose, he connected himself to the device, which was designed to keep him stable and allow him to return from the quantum realm.
He began to shrink, first to the height of a child, then to that of a mosquito, then to dust, a cell, a bacterium, a virus.
He kept getting smaller, beyond molecules and atoms, entering the subatomic level, where protons and neutrons blurred before his eyes, forming a hypnotic spectacle.
Finally, he crossed the boundary where even elementary particles lost meaning. He had reached the quantum realm.
But reality turned out different from what he had planned. To avoid being trapped, Hank had designed the process to send only his consciousness into the quantum realm. At the moment the machine activated, his body and mind separated.
The first thing he did upon arriving was, of course, try to return, but he discovered his mistake.
"No... what's happening?" he murmured in horror. No matter how hard he tried, his size didn't increase.
And soon, he discovered something worse.
"No... I calculated everything right. Where did I go wrong?" He tried to hit himself, but couldn't move his hand.
He noticed that aside from his eyes, he couldn't move anything. His body was completely motionless.
"I'm speaking... but I'm not moving my mouth. What's going on? I just pressed the button to return, how is this possible?"
He didn't understand what was happening. But from the moment he decided to enter the quantum realm, he had been prepared for the worst. He could only accept his fate in silence, waiting to die slowly.
Two days later, in the middle of absolute silence, he heard a voice.
"Hey, buddy. What are you doing there?"
"Hey... buddy... you, the one in the yellow jacket."
"Me?" Pym asked, surprised.
In front of him stood a gelatinous being, humanoid in shape but with five arms extended in a circle at the height where a head should have been... which didn't exist.
"Yeah, you," replied the strange creature, speaking from something like a mouth on the rightmost arm.
Hank told him his situation. Not because he trusted him, nor because he expected help, but because he knew his time was near.
But to his surprise, that being had an answer.
Pym's mistake had been judging the quantum realm by the rules of the physical world.
In this place, things happened that were impossible to understand from Earth, and what affected Pym's calculations was that the quantum realm was inhabited by beings made purely of consciousness.
Pym's device couldn't return him to his body because his mind was no longer just a consciousness. The moment he entered the quantum realm, he became a separate entity.
And the reason he couldn't move was that his current form was too basic, almost nonexistent.
The beings of consciousness were like thoughts floating in the void, will without body, condemned to remain in one place, though at least they had telekinesis and telepathy.
Hank realized that this was what he had been doing all along: he had never spoken, never moved.
Before he could say more, the being drifted away, indifferent. In that unimaginable world, something like Hank wasn't even close to being the strangest thing one could encounter.
He didn't care either. He knew he would die soon.
But days passed, and he discovered something disturbing: he couldn't die.
He felt no hunger, no sleep, no fatigue. Only... existence.
The problem he had ignored before became unbearable.
Every creature that passed by greeted him with indifference and moved on.
Even those who showed interest eventually left.
Years went by. No one called him by his name anymore. "Yellow Jacket," they called him as they passed.
"How much time has passed?" he wondered every day, not knowing if it had been days, years, or perhaps centuries.
One day, the visits stopped. Only one presence every ten years, at most.
Hank began to lose his sanity, trapped in solitude.
His mind, growing ever more powerful, also became more dangerous.
He stopped perceiving time, or his surroundings... he only felt pain, fear, anger, emptiness.
And all those feelings were directed toward those who hadn't saved him: S.H.I.E.L.D., the Avengers, Leonardo.
After centuries, for the first time, his mind became clear again. He discovered that he could move.
He didn't understand why, but he knew he was furious. And he wanted revenge.
And all that rage turned toward the one he then saw...a being who had been watching from the beginning, narrating events like some sort of storyteller.
"Who are you?" Hank asked.
"I'm Leonardo," I answered calmly.
"Why didn't you do anything? Why?"
"For a greater good."
"For a greater good? All this suffering, all these years of eternal loneliness, just so others can benefit?" Hank shouted angrily.
"Stop narrating what I'm doing, it's annoying," Hank growled, full of rage.
"After all, this is my dream."
"Dream?"
"That's right. Every night I dream of you. This dream, so extremely detailed, where I watch your centuries of suffering."
"Why?"
"Because I'm the one who caused all this," I replied with the indifference of someone who had lived through it many nights.
"You deserve to carry the guilt. You think you're a hero? Would a hero do this?"
"So we've already reached the part where you're no longer Hank but my own conscience talking to me, huh?" I murmured to myself, though Hank still stood before me. But he wasn't Hank anymore, just a manifestation of my own guilt. I knew what would come next: it was always the same.
"You don't deserve to be called a hero. You say you sacrifice others for the greater good, but you only seek control."
"Maybe you're right," I replied calmly. "But it's the path I chose, and I'll follow it to the end."
Hank laughed bitterly.
"You plan to kill Ross after this, don't you? You'll tell the world he was a Skrull just to remove another obstacle. Why?"
"You know why."
"Banner..." Hank whispered. "Funny, isn't it? Ross wants to sacrifice Bruce Banner for the good of his country. How are you any different? In the end, you're just another hypocrite."
"Maybe I am," I repeated.
"You're disgusting. If all heroes were like you, the world would be rotten."
"It won't be. I'll make sure of that," I said seriously.
"How? With your Illuminati?"
"The world doesn't need more people like me. And if they exist, they're only the members. But that's fine."
"That's fine?"
"Yes. People need a reason to think like me. And I... no, the Illuminati will make sure that reason never appears before them. Every hard decision, every action that can't be made public, every sacrifice, we'll take it on ourselves. We'll keep heroes walking in the light by cutting down any shadow before it grows...or by absorbing it ourselves."
"But I'm still here, aren't I? I'm your guilt. That means you know what you're doing is wrong."
"Of course I do. But that's the point. I do it so others don't have to."
At that moment, a woman's voice echoed through the void.
"Leo..."
The surroundings began to fade.
"Looks like they're calling me. See you tomorrow, as always."
"You don't deserve her," Hank whispered.
"Then let me be selfish for once, and stay with her anyway," I replied as the world regained its color.
When I woke up, Gwen was beside me, looking at me with tenderness.
"Did you have another sad dream? You're crying," she asked, worried.
Her concern made me smile before I kissed her. "I'm fine, just some sad childhood memories."
"Something sad?" she repeated, tilting her head in a gesture he found adorable.
"Yeah... we should adopt a cat."
"We're going to have a baby, and you want to take care of both at once?"
"Sounds nice, they can grow up together."
"Let's not talk about that now. Wanda, Pietro, and Tony are waiting for you downstairs."
"Right... let's finish the Skrull problem once and for all and get back to normal."
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(just delete the hyphen)
80 power stones = 1 extra chapter (cumulative)