"You… you…"
Hank was furious at Doom's words, but he couldn't refute them. Everything the man said was exactly what he had done.
He had a huge company, yet refused to let it research quantum technology. He shut himself away at home, working alone. Because of that, his daughter had grown quieter and more withdrawn since she was little, missing her mother.
There was no way to deny the facts of the past. The only thing he could do now was to prove himself with results.
"Quantum research is advanced science. If other people get involved, the work might move faster, but mistakes would be unavoidable. In that case, I'd rather work on it alone."
That was the excuse he clung to. It wasn't about protecting his fragile pride over rescuing his wife faster. It was about avoiding interference from people he saw as mediocre, who might cause fatal errors in the experiments.
He then looked at Doom. "I heard from Darren that you lot have also made progress in the Quantum Realm. If that's true, why not show it to me?"
'Stubborn old man,' Tony cursed silently. If the guy had just kept his mouth shut from the start, this could've gone smoothly. But no, this old fool had to start something, and now they had wasted all this time.
Still grumbling in his head, he tossed the research data they had gathered over the past few days onto the table in front of Hank.
He picked it up. He hadn't read far before his expression turned complicated.
"What is it, Hank?" Steve quickly stepped in before Tony could throw out a sarcastic remark. Whether it was Doom or Tony, he didn't want them pushing Hank's buttons again. It had taken a lot just to get everyone to sit down and talk. The last thing he wanted was another argument.
Hank stayed silent. He tapped his finger twice on the table, and the surface split open, revealing a hidden supercomputer.
He took out a USB drive from his pocket, plugged it in, and a moment later, the holographic projection displayed research results almost identical to the ones Tony had brought.
This was everything he had achieved over the years. His complete progress in Quantum Realm research.
"Did we… not help at all?"
Steve didn't understand the complex formulas, but he could see Hank's results matched theirs exactly. That meant their efforts over the past few days hadn't brought them any closer to rescuing Janet, other than giving them a chance to talk to Hank.
But Steve was the only one disappointed.
Tony and Reed were unfazed. They had anticipated this from the start, or rather, this outcome was even better than they had hoped for.
Hank had been working on this for over a decade. They had only spent a few days on it and didn't even know the exact properties of the Pym Particles. It was not surprising that what they had achieved was something the man had already figured out long ago.
What they didn't know was that Hank was struggling to hide his own shock.
It wasn't hard to see why. His pride had taken a hit.
Tony and the others thought this was just his latest work. But he knew better. The data they were looking at represented all of his achievements in the quantum realm from the past ten-plus years.
Tony had graduated barely a decade ago. Before this, Reed had been an unknown researcher. There was no way they had spent the same amount of time studying the quantum realm as him.
Yet in such a short period of time, they had caught up to what had taken him years. It was undeniable evidence that he had put his ego above his wife's life.
"I…" Hank could no longer bring himself to say anything harsh. He couldn't ignore anything related to Janet.
His mind might not have been entirely healthy, but there was no question that his love for her was real.
Seeing his reaction, Steve understood what was going through his head. He walked forward and gently patted Hank on the shoulder.
"Hank, it's not too late. If we work together, we can save your wife."
Hank raised his head slightly at those words and glanced at him. But rather than showing the kind of deep gratitude one would expect in a dramatic moment, his face was filled with discomfort.
"Captain, if you looked a little older, I think I'd feel a lot better."
That made Steve's face darken.
'I'd love to be older,' he thought. 'Then I could retire in peace instead of running around in a time that doesn't belong to me.'
Still, the tension between them eased.
Hank quietly tucked away the files Tony had thrown over. The overlap was high, but there were still parts worth studying and improving on.
"Thank you for this research. But I don't think you came here just to help me save Janet. I'm confident I've kept that matter well hidden."
Finally, Tony handed over the set of documents he had prepared. One glance was enough for Hank to understand why they had really come.
"I see. So S.H.I.E.L.D. had already…"
Hank might have his issues, but when he wasn't having an episode, he was still a rational man. Learning that Hydra had long infiltrated S.H.I.E.L.D., it wasn't hard for him to figure out that the ones who had stolen his work weren't Howard or his people, but Hydra agents hiding in the shadows.
His anger toward Howard had come from the man's promise never to ask for the Pym Particle technology. Looking back now, he realized no foreign agent could have moved against the particles under Howard's watch. Only Hydra, buried deep inside, could have done it.
"Even so," Hank said, "if you're here to ask me to join your fight against Hydra, I'll have to decline. If I hear anything, I'll pass it along, but right now, my only focus is going into the Quantum Realm and bringing Janet back."
The others nodded. They never truly intended to recruit Hank into S.H.I.E.L.D. His response was something they had expected.
Everything they'd done was to create an opportunity, a moment when Hydra would show itself.
And that chance came at this very instant.
Doom's brows furrowed as the magical barrier he'd set up sensed something unusual. With a snap of his fingers, he lifted the spell sealing the conference room door.
A second later, Darren stumbled inside, covered in blood, collapsing heavily to the floor.
"Bad news! A… a terrorist group is attacking the headquarters. The lobby has already fallen. They're trying to crack the code to the underground lab!"
The opportunity had arrived.
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