# 1
Written by Barry Reese
Ant-Man logo created by Kell Carpenter

"Little Earthquakes"
Part One

Phoenix, Arizona

Scott Lang tried to ignore the sweat that kept dripping down into his eyes, carrying dirt and grime in its wake. He was filthy, his clothes matted to his skin and his face showing a two-day growth of stubble, but he kept working in the garden, slowly but steadily transforming the empty backyard of his new home into something presentable.

He'd never been very good with plants. As a matter of course, he was more comfortable with machines than living things -- his daughter Cassie had been the only thing that could break through his armor, could really connect with the man inside. Everyone else -- even friends and confidantes like Sue Richards or Tony Stark -- were always kept at a distance, with just enough space between them so that Scott never felt crowded or vulnerable.

"Mr. Lang?"

Scott ignored the voice, driving his shovel deep into the yielding soil once more. His back ached and he badly wanted to get a drink of lemonade, but there were still several holes that needed to be dug before he could take a break.

Colin Davies stood off to the side, scratching the back of his head. He wore a black suit with a white shirt and he felt like he was standing in a furnace. He set his briefcase down on the floor and took a step towards Scott's side, clearing his throat. "Mr. Lang? My name's Davies. Colin Davies. I'm here about the insurance policy on your wife?"

Scott continued to work the soil, the repetitive motions soothing him.

He'd met Peggy Rae years ago, before the world had burned away some of his idealism. He'd thought he could support a wife and family, doing repair work. It had failed -- he'd taken one gamble too many to make ends meet, eventually going to jail for petty burglary. Peggy had divorced him during this time and he couldn't blame her. Who wanted to be married to a criminal?

Hell, who wanted to be a criminal? Certainly not Scott.

"Mr. Lang... Please. It's very hot and I have other places to be. Your former wife and her current husband were both killed in the recent Stark Invasion... she's left several things in her will that are earmarked for your daughter's future. Given the fact that you're Cassandra's legal guardian, we need to--"

Scott stopped, leaving the shovel embedded in the earth.

He looked over at Colin Davies, noticing the way the younger man drew back from him. He probably knew Scott's record and was afraid of him. Or maybe he was just afraid of the look in Scott's eyes, the wounded animal look that only truly pained men can attain. "Did you see my daughter on your back here?" Scott asked, his voice hoarse and tired.

"Uh... yes. Yes, I did. She was on the front steps, reading. Very cute girl." Davies looked uncomfortable. "I'm sorry for your loss. A lot of people lost loved ones in the invasion."

"Did you?"

"...No."

"Lucky." Scott wiped his forehead with the back of an arm. "I just bought this place."

"It's... very nice. Mr. Lang, I can see you're very busy but I'll take a few minutes of your time and--."

Scott ignored him, stepping past the man. His daughter Cassie was walking towards him. She looked so much like her mother -- Scott had to swallow hard every time he saw her now. "What's up, baby?"

Cassie frowned a little. She was getting too old for 'baby,' but she knew how much her father worried about her -- especially now. It was why he'd dragged her to Phoenix and bought this house. It was why he paced the floor at night and couldn't sleep. "Somebody came by to see you. They're parked out front."

Scott nodded, walking towards her and patting her shoulder. He could feel Davies watching him in exasperation, before following after. "Mr. Lang! Please! I really need to--" Davies stumbled to a halt as they came around the corner. He'd expected to see a car or truck 'parked' in the yard but there was neither before him. How it had landed so quietly was beyond him... "What is that?" he whispered.

Scott stopped in place, nodding once as Ben Grimm -- the rocky figure known as the Thing -- emerged from the side of the vehicle. He gave a wave to Cassie and Scott, holding a small set of flowers in his hand. His rocky features showed his sorrow and Scott felt a wave of emotion at seeing his old friend. He turned to Davies, his eyes narrowing. "It's a Fantasticar. Now, leave me your papers and I'll look over them. My daughter and I are in mourning -- and we're accepting visitors, who want to share their respects. So please... let me call you."

Davies nodded dumbly, staring at the Thing. Scott had moved over to greet him, leaving Cassie to stand next to the insurance agent. "Your dad... is he always so intense?"

Cassie looked at the man gravely. "Not always. He's just upset. He'll be okay, though. He's very mature for his age."

"How's he holding up?" Ben asked, gingerly setting his weight down on an antique couch. 

Cassie sat down beside him, looking thoughtful. She was becoming a teenager, developing that lanky coltish body that girls sometimes get. "Pretty well. Mom's death has brought up a lot of old unresolved feelings. But he's working through the stages of grief. You have to be patient with these kinds of things."

"And you?"

"I'm fine. I miss her but... I have to be strong for dad."

"You're a peach, kiddo." Ben looked up as Scott entered the room, carrying a beer for himself and a coke for Ben. "Thanks, Scott."

"No problem. Sorry for the mess, we're still getting unpacked."

"No rush. Listen, Reed wanted me to pass something on to you -- maybe something to get your wheels unstuck and busy with something."

"I am busy with something. New house, remember?"

"Yeah, but this is business and all. In Los Angeles, they're reporting millions of ants dropping dead in the last week. Their bodies are everywhere -- and in Memphis, somebody was eaten alive by 'em. The buggers just snuck into her house while she slept and--"

"I'm not keeper of the ants, Ben. I just happen to hang out with them."

"Yeah, but this seemed more up your alley than ours and--"

"Problem not big enough for the Fantastic Four?" Scott asked, sipping his beer.

"Not like that, at all. Just that--"

"People call the FF when Galactus comes to town. A bunch of ants start acting up, call Scott Lang. I understand my place in the superhero pecking order, Ben. But I'm retired. I just saw our planet invaded by aliens, who killed a lot of people -- some of which I once knew and loved. I want to be home with my daughter. I've enrolled her in school and she'll be starting in the fall. I want us to have memories together that don't involve supervillains and death threats."

Cassie locked eyes with her father, trying to will him some strength. She loved him so much -- and she knew he was hurting. 

Ben nodded as his communicator went off with a chime. "Gotta go. Listen, you call if you need anythin', okay?"

Scott promised he would, helping his friend outside. But he knew he wouldn't -- Ben was part of Scott's superhero past and as far as Scott was concerned, that door was closed. It needed to be, for both his and Cassie's sanity.

Scott kept his eyes closed at night, even when he wasn't sleeping. He could feel her in the room, could smell the shampoo in her hair, could feel the press of her breasts against his back. 

Peggy.

"Why are you here?" he asked the darkness.

"Because I love you. I always did. I'm so sorry, Scott... for not trusting you. For abandoning you when you went to jail."

"You're a figment of my imagination."

"You believe in space aliens and women who can turn invisible... but you can't believe in ghosts?"

Scott didn't answer, keeping his eyes closed. He heard movement in the room, growing louder... it was like the humming of bees or the movement of many tiny legs across the floor. It was the ants.

They moved together, thousands of them, coating the floor and the bed. They came through vents and cracks, squeezing up past the carpet and dropping from the ceiling. Scott could feel Peggy pull away, leaving him alone with the ants. Lately he hadn't even needed the helmet to call them, to bring them forth -- but they didn't always come just when he called. Sometimes they just came.

Scott sat up in bed, his eyes still closed. He thought about Ben's words, about the weird ant-related events across the country. There were more, he knew -- for he'd read of them himself on the Internet. Ants behaving strangely, appearing in places where they shouldn't, killing or stealing at times.

His eyelids fluttered, parting. On the floor, the ants were huddling together, forming words. He rose, clad only in his boxer shorts, and knelt beside them. What were they doing? Was he doing this to them, subconsciously?

The ants spelled out 

HELP US.

"Ben? It's Scott... that job you mentioned, about the ants? Yeah, that one. I've hooked up my fax machine -- can you send over everything you've got? No, I'm not promising anything... just bored. Thanks."

Cassie was at the store, leaving Scott alone in the house. He'd dug out his costume, holding it in his hands for a long time before putting it on. He liked it, really... the feel of it made him braver and stronger. He'd finally shaved and showered before donning it, knowing that it wouldn't be proper to wear it while looking like a bum.

Becoming Ant-Man had helped Scott once, lifting him out of despair and self-loathing... making him stronger. A hero. He needed it to do that again. The ants needed it, too.

He slipped the helmet into place, feeling better already. The papers Ben had faxed over suggested that someone was manipulating the ants in the same way that Scott could -- but as far as Scott knew, all of Hank Pym's old equipment was accounted for. That meant that either someone had created their own method for doing it or a mutant was behind it. Either way, Scott needed to find them. 

He swallowed hard, feeling nervous. His control over the ants had increased lately, as if he were internalizing the power somehow. He'd thought about asking Reed to look into that for him -- or at the very least, calling Hank to see if long-term exposure to the helmet or shrinking gas could have side-effects. 

Scott shrank down in size, becoming Ant-Man fully. He wasn't surprised to see a few of his friends emerge from beneath the bed, recognizing him. Ants were generally ignored by most of the human population, but they had a complex social organization -- and were capable of memorizing tasks and places. These two -- dubbed Emma and Steed, like all his favorites -- came towards him eagerly. He liked to reward them with small treats after jobs well done, a little dab of honey left on the floor or a choice morsel from dinner. Cassie had long since grown used to him dumping his scraps on the local ant hill after a meal.

Ant-Man moved up next to the bigger of the two and affectionately patted its head. "Hey there, buddy. How ya doing?"

Steed's antenna moved and Scott found himself translating the insect's 'words.' 

Another is speaking to us. Another human... his voice is grating. Causes pain. We've felt it from afar. It doesn't nudge, it forces and burns. Kills those it touches and commands. The Queen is afraid. We are afraid.

"I'm going to help you, don't worry. Do you mind if I try something new? It might help."

Will it hurt?

"I don't think so," he laughed. "Not you, at least. Me? I don't know."

Ant-Man waited for Steed to lower his head, giving him tacit approval to continue. Scott relaxed, using his inner abilities more than the helmet now... he let his mind open to the ant's, welcoming in a variety of new sensations and desires.

A compulsion to serve the nest, to protect the queen above all else... and the sense of satisfaction from being one of many, of being a part of a greater whole. There were no shades of confusion that so often color human interactions -- here, one ant always knew his place. It gave comfort to Scott, as well, reminding him of his own place in the structure of his life. He protected Cassie and she nurtured him. They were a unit.

On the periphery, though, lurked more. It was a field that seemed to stretch beyond one ant, beyond the nest. It touched and guided all things, but Scott seemed able to view only one or two layers of that: man and ant. He pushed his mind straight into the ant layer, for a moment letting his consciousness spread out over the world. Ants were everywhere, in every home, in every environment. Some were more militant or aggressive than other breeds, but all shared some of the same traits: a desire for conformity, for the greater good of their collective.

But now a mind was interrupting those desires, pressing someone else's needs onto the ants'. It was predatory and hungry, greedy to show off its power. Scott knew instinctively it was human -- only a human mind could feel that dangerous, that sadistic. This power was too much for the ants, leaving them shriveled husks after they had completed its tasks... mass deaths of the tiny insects that sent a shiver of disgust and fury through Scott's heart.

And he felt the mind's eye of the villain staring back at him.

Ant-Man pulled away quickly, finding that he was shaking. Both Emma and Steed were close to him, studying the human. He felt comforted by their presence, but he knew that there was a mind out there that could try to control them... to force them to turn on him or his daughter.

"You wouldn't do that would you, guys?"

Emma nudged him gently.

Scott smiled back at her. "Good girl." He ran over to side of his nightstand, activating the rocket jets on his belt. He landed next to the phone, taking out his Avengers communicator. He was about to contact the Mansion when Cassie entered the room. He saw her take a step towards Emma and Steed -- for a moment, fear blossomed in his heart that she might hurt them, but he'd trained her too well. His daughter neatly stepped aside them. "Hi, honey. Get anything at the store?"

"Some milk and bread." She looked down at him, curious to see him in the costume. "What's wrong?"

"There's someone out there, hurting the ants. I got a sense of their location, but it was fairly vague. I'm pretty sure it was somewhere in Houston, or near there. You ever heard of a place called Sugar Land? That's what I picked up."

"Sounds like a place ants would love," Cassie replied, sitting on the bed. She was glad to see her bed active again.

"Yes, guess it does." 

"You gonna let the Avengers handle it?" she asked, looking at the communicator in her dad's hand.

"I..." Scott began, realizing that he had, indeed, been about to dump this off on them. But what would he tell them? That some new criminal was out there, with the ability to control and hurt ants? It probably wouldn't rank high on their list of things to do... "You want to go with me to Texas?" he asked, looking up at her. 

Cassie sat back and grinned. "If it'll keep you showering on a regular basis, sure."

"Watch it, kiddo!" he laughed. Growing more serious, he said "You going to be okay?"

"I will be. Mom... mom's always going to be with us. I just wish I could tell her I love her." Her voice grew quiet. "I was a brat the last time I visited her."

Scott enlarged himself to his proper height, sitting beside his daughter and taking her in his arms. "She loved you so much."

They held each other for a long time, each closing their eyes and remembering. Scott could feel Peggy's hand on his shoulder, warm and reassuring. When he glanced over at her, he saw her corpse sitting beside them. She looked battered and bruised, her skin an unhealthy shade of blue.

She blew him a kiss.

The ant burned, its body writing in torment. The man watched its life end, taking no motion to speed up its death. He enjoyed watching them suffer, enjoyed the little bits of telepathic terror and fear they fed him. He sat in his throne, his body hidden beneath a thousand ants, each of them scurrying across him like little slaves. They were his slaves. His toys. It was only a pity that his control of them inevitably led to their bodies bursting into tiny pyres, the smoke of their bodies stinking the air.

But the Ant-Man was coming to stop him, to make him end his games. The bitch in Memphis had been an ex-girlfriend, who had left him when his sexual interests had gotten too perverse for him. She'd run off and left him, calling him 'sick.' Now she's learned her lesson. And so would everyone else...

Karl Wilmon, the Ant-Lord, was going to be famous.

He let one of his slaves crawl into his open mouth and he bit down hard, its blood and guts spurting out onto his tongue.

"Delicious," he murmured, shivering. He couldn't wait for Ant-Man to come to him, to challenge him. He needed it, was ready for it.

Only one man could control the vast army of the ants. Only one.

He ate another, then one more. He let several of them bite him, enjoying the stinging of their venom.

Only one, to control them all.

TO BE CONTINUED

Next Issue: Ant-Man and his daughter journey to the suburbs of Houston, where they encounter a villain whose psychic prowess threatens the entire world. Plus: the nature of Peggy's hauntings becomes clear.

Author's Notes

"I'm bored," I said. "I want to do something different."

Gary Dreslinski answered pretty much right away: "Ant-Man. Do Ant-Man."

I was a bit surprised. I mean... Ant-Man?! But the more I thought about it, the more I liked it. Scott Lang's a single dad and a pretty normal guy -- but he hangs out with ants. That's just whacked. How could I turn this down?

So here we are. Ant-Man. Living in Phoenix with his daughter and his dead ex-wife. About to go to war with a guy who likes torturing ants.

This is going to be fun.

Barry