-----
-----
"Superman? Are you… are you serious?"
Seeing Superman in front of him was already shocking enough for Dr. Pym.
But hearing what Peter said, in that low, serious tone—well, it completely blew Pym's mind.
"I'm dead serious. I never joke," Peter said flatly, no hint of humor on his face.
"But… I've never tried shrinking an energy source with Pym Particles before," Dr. Pym replied, trying to gently talk his way out of it—though he wasn't lying.
"I believe you can do it," Peter said confidently.
And then, in the blink of an eye, he vanished from in front of Pym—and reappeared behind him.
"…Alright then. Give me a second to pack up," Pym sighed.
Turning around and facing Peter up close, feeling the pressure from his presence, Dr. Pym realized there was no point resisting.
A few minutes later, Pym was packed and ready, having left a quick message for his daughter. He brought along a stash of Pym Particles and returned to stand before Peter.
He wasn't even considering using the Ant-Man suit to run away.
Because let's be honest—unless he somehow disappeared into the quantum realm, there was no way he'd ever escape Superman.
"Alright, I'm ready," Pym said. "How exactly are we getting out of here?"
"Like this," Peter replied, a mysterious smirk on his face as he slowly raised his right hand.
In the next second, a stream of electric blue energy shot out from his nano-suit and formed a glowing orb in mid-air.
The orb began to ripple outward, like liquid, spreading in every direction. Within moments, it had become a tall, shimmering blue energy screen—easily taller than a person.
"Is… is this magic?" Pym asked, eyes wide, stunned by what he was seeing.
"It's a kind of experimental tech, actually," Peter chuckled. "But don't worry, it's perfectly safe—for now."
To prove it, Peter walked right into the glowing screen without hesitation.
"This is… unbelievable."
Watching Peter disappear into the portal, Pym couldn't help circling around it, studying it from every angle. But no matter how hard he looked, he couldn't figure out how it worked.
Finally, he closed his eyes, took a deep breath like a man about to be executed, and stepped inside.
"Dr. Pym, hello. I'm Reed Richards. Your Pym Particles are truly fascinating—what an incredible piece of tech."
Before Pym even opened his eyes, he heard a stranger's voice greeting him.
"What… what just happened?" he muttered, slowly opening his eyes—only to find the world around him had completely changed.
In the blink of an eye, he had gone from his cozy apartment to a sleek, high-tech lab.
And in front of him stood a group of strangers—at least a dozen people.
"What you just experienced was one of our little inventions," Reed said proudly. "We're calling it the Portal."
Yep—Reed Richards built the thing.
After getting access to a bunch of vibranium, and running extensive tests, he was suddenly struck with inspiration to finally perfect the portal idea he'd been toying with.
Under Peter's supervision, they managed to activate their first working, space-bending portal.
"A portal? This is insane… it's like God-level magic…" Pym muttered in awe as he stepped down from the large, circular archway. He couldn't stop staring at the faint blue energy still fading inside the device.
"Of course, this tech is still in the early experimental phase. Each time we turn it on, it uses a massive amount of power."
To be honest, the current version of the portal only works by brute-forcing it with an enormous energy supply.
First off, the whole arch-like frame is built almost entirely out of vibranium.
Then, there are more than ten arc reactors powering it, each one needing nearly 10 hours of continuous charging just to fill the vibranium with enough energy to run the portal—for less than a minute.
And every time they use it, all the reactors need their palladium cores replaced.
"Massive energy, huh…"
Pym couldn't help walking around the big circular machine, quickly spotting over a dozen glowing reactors embedded in its surface.
"And that's not all—it can only lock onto a fixed location on one side. No two-way travel, and no choosing where to go freely."
"Hmm… sounds like a recall scroll from some RPG," he joked.
Reed was generously pointing out all the flaws of the portal, but even so, you could still see the pride written all over his face.
"A town portal scroll? Incredible… just incredible…"
Even though he was an old-timer and had no clue what a "town portal scroll" was, Dr. Pym still managed to get what Reed meant.
"Oh, right—where's Superman? The one who got here early?"
After marveling at the portal, Dr. Pym finally remembered Peter.
"He probably went to retrieve that 'star' lighting up New York."
"Look, he's already back…"
As Reed spoke, a familiar figure appeared at the end of the hallway, casually holding a glowing "star" in one hand.
Late at night, inside Tony Stark's villa.
"Jarvis, any word on that biotech lab I asked you to look into?"
Tony tossed the photo he'd been staring at over and over again onto the table and asked Jarvis.
"Sir, the company does have records showing that lab was established—and it was around that time that Miss Potts was forced to take a leave of absence."
"However, none of the lab's equipment is connected to the internet, and the data is stored on isolated servers. I'm sorry, but I can't—"
"So all you could find is this, huh?"
Tony's face grew darker.
When he came back and found out his personal assistant had been put on forced leave, he was furious and immediately reinstated Pepper without digging too deep.
He didn't expect the reason she was forced to step down was tied to that lab.
"Anything else on Obadiah's personal computer or phone?"
At this point, Tony was beginning to suspect his father's old partner—his so-called "uncle."
Even though he'd been reluctant to go there before.
"Apologies, sir. Mr. Stane's computer is protected by an extremely secure system. If I try to hack it, he'll probably know right away."
"Looks like he's covered all his tracks."
Seeing that this plan was going nowhere, Tony's face turned completely grim.
"In that case, I'll handle it myself."
The next second, Tony stood up from the couch.
He grabbed a nanotech storage unit from the table, placed it on his chest, and tapped it twice.
In less than three seconds, the nanotech suit swarmed over his body, locking into place. The metal helmet slammed down, and his glowing white eyes lit up with an eerie intensity.
Jets of fire burst from under his feet, lifting him effortlessly off the ground.
The powerful thrust launched him right out of the garage and into the wide-open sky.
BOOM!
With a loud sonic boom, Iron Man blasted through the sound barrier, streaking toward the secret biotech lab.
"Hey, did anyone else notice that super bright 'star' in the sky's gone tonight?"
At the same time, lots of people were realizing that the "star" that had been lighting up the New York skyline had suddenly vanished.
And beneath the night sky, a lean figure dressed in a tight black-and-white suit had reappeared for the first time in days.
With webs shooting from her wrists, she swung gracefully between skyscrapers, racing toward a lab in the outskirts of New York.
"....."