[ Some Island in Costa Rica ]
Black Widow found a secret passage and charged in like a woman on a mission—which she literally was—intent on wiping out the last of the cockroach squad. Meanwhile, Hill and Sharon initiated a tactical op known in SHIELD code as "Operation: Smash & Grab": translation—copy all the juicy data first, then burn the house down.
Outside, Daisy dragged Dr. Hank Pym from the lab like a reluctant grandfather at Comic-Con. To the casual observer, the white-haired man looked like a fragile retiree, but the guy had once blown up Nazi tanks with his bare hands—well, sort of—and thanks to years of exposure to Pym particles, he ran better than most teenagers hopped up on energy drinks. Even at eighty-plus, he kept pace with Daisy like a seasoned parkour enthusiast.
Then, out of nowhere, Daisy's danger senses tingled—or maybe it was just that weird sound on the left. She yanked the doctor to a stop. "Wait—oh hell. What is that?!"
Boom. Boom. Boom.
Enter: a ten-meter-tall science experiment gone wrong, stomping toward them like Godzilla had a PhD. The creature wore an oversized lab coat, tie, and wristwatch—because apparently even kaiju-sized nerds keep office hours. But the real centerpiece? That head. Enormous. Bald. Pear-shaped. Like a lightbulb that'd been overthinking quantum mechanics.
"Is that... Dr. Eggman?!" Daisy gawked.
His gaze, magnified behind round glasses and a comically large dome helmet, locked onto Dr. Pym with laser-focused hatred. Daisy instinctively stepped back. Sure, they'd fought giant bugs before, but this? This was a mega-nerd on steroids.
Pym particles. The stuff of Marvel magic. In the right hands, they could shrink a man to ant-size. In the wrong hands? They turned a lab technician into a kaiju with a vengeance.
And this lab-tech-turned-walking-doomsday clearly had a vendetta.
"Hey, Doc," Daisy said, half-joking, half-panicked, "any chance you can supersize me so I can fight him WWF-style?"
Pym, hand-empty and fresh out of super serums, had no reply. Daisy sighed, drawing her trusty Rhino revolver and calling into the comms: "Uh, team? We've got a boss fight out here!"
The towering menace said something in Hungarian—at least, Daisy hoped it was Hungarian and not a death spell. Before she could ask for subtitles, Dr. Pym went full boomer mode and shouted back, fists on hips like he was about to ground the giant.
Apparently, Dr. Eggman was tired of lectures. He raised a massive foot, aiming to squash his old mentor like a rebellious student at finals week.
Daisy didn't wait. She grabbed the doc and bolted, revolver in one hand, firing blindly at the incoming head of doom.
"Bang!"
The Magnum round whistled through the air and nailed the egg-dome right between the glasses. Score? Daisy: 1, Eggman's ego: bruised.
But not broken.
The bullet barely scratched him. The fat layer absorbed it like a champ. The guy's face bled a little, sure—but it was like shooting a beach ball filled with science and spite.
"What's the science behind this?!" Daisy gasped mid-sprint. "Where's the conservation of mass? Is he importing muscle from another dimension?!"
Dr. Pym glanced at her like she'd just asked for his Wi-Fi password mid-earthquake. "Now's not the time for a physics debate!"
"You're the one who made this mess!"
"Technically, he did."
A rock the size of a Smart Car smashed the spot they'd just vacated. Daisy shoved the doc down just in time, muttering, "You're lucky I'm still pretending to like you."
Running wasn't cutting it. Eggman moved in mega-strides, yanking trees out of the ground like toothpicks and playing whack-a-mole with them. Boulders rained like confetti. If backup didn't come soon, this was going to be their finale.
Daisy tucked the pistol away. Time to get real.
She reached inside, letting her Inhuman powers simmer beneath the surface. No one knew yet, and she wasn't planning on giving a TED Talk about it, so the cover story was ready: "Kung Fu."
"Doctor, if you grow bigger, does your density increase too?" she asked while dodging a telephone-pole-sized tree.
"Yes! Everything scales up. Density, mass, weight—why are we talking about this now?!" Pym gasped.
"Science helps me focus!" she snapped. Actually, what helped her focus more was the low, gritty voice of a certain Agent Hill whispering in her memory: "Always find the angle, Johnson."
She blushed slightly, the ghost of a smirk playing on her lips. Not now, Daisy. Not the time to be crushing on your commanding officer.
Dr. Pym, ever the gallant geezer, tried to insist they split up. "You run this way, I'll be bait!"
"Cute," Daisy replied, shoving him toward cover. "But you're the human Wikipedia we're here to rescue, so run!"
With a deep breath and a reckless smile, Daisy turned and charged Eggman's massive legs. She wasn't sure how she'd survive this. Maybe she wouldn't. But she'd be damned if she didn't make the shiny-headed science god feel it in his ankles.
To be continued...
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[ POWER STONES AND REVIEWS PLS ]