Hank frowned at Arthur. "Are you lecturing me?"
"Maybe..." Arthur shrugged. "If you're willing to listen, of course. If not, then forget it."
A heavy silence fell between them.
After a moment, Arthur asked, "Have you ever considered... a possibility?"
Hank stared at him, puzzled.
"Never mind. You probably haven't thought about it yet," Arthur waved his hand dismissively. "If you ever have any ideas or need help, just let me know. You know, the point of friendship is to make complex tasks a little simpler."
"Whatever," Hank waved him off.
Arthur rolled up the car window, and Blackie roared to life and sped away.
Hank watched the car's taillights disappear, his brow furrowed. "A possibility?"
…
Hank was a remarkably stubborn and self-assured man.
Arthur's words had served only as a minor catalyst. Once Hank discovered the possibility of returning from the Quantum Realm, the outcome might not be as difficult as he had originally anticipated.
And if the superhero alliance helped him build a quantum tunnel to bring his wife Janet back, he might not be so resistant to joining their ranks after all.
"This guy is actually searching for possibilities, but he still doesn't believe any organization needs him," Arthur mused.
Hearing Arthur's words, Natasha replied through the communicator, "At least we've invited Ant-Man, and he hasn't refused."
"It's still uncertain whether Scott will join," Arthur said, steering the car. "His thinking is a bit hard to fathom."
"By the way..." Natasha shifted the conversation, not wanting to delve deeper into the previous topic. "After SHIELD's collapse, we inherited a massive amount of data. I've been sifting through it all, and recently I came across some information related to Hank. Do you want to hear about it?"
"Tell me," Arthur replied. "If you're bringing it up, it must have implications for our current situation, right?"
"I'm not sure about the implications," Natasha said. "I need your judgment on that. Based on the data I've been analyzing, I discovered something... In his early years, Hank was practically a tyrant in the lab. He had unparalleled confidence in himself, and his relationships with the other researchers weren't particularly good. In such an environment, even minor incidents could be blown out of proportion—especially... when more serious things happened."
"What kind of 'serious things' are you referring to?"
"For example, stealing research blueprints," Natasha said. "Elihas Starr!"
"No recollection..." Arthur said. "He stole the blueprints, and then what?"
"Then Hank fired him," Natasha replied. "But this man retained the fundamental tenacity of a scientist. Even after leaving the lab, he continued conducting quantum experiments, which ultimately led to a catastrophic accident. He and his wife both perished in the explosion, but their daughter... Ava Starr... miraculously survived. It's hard to say whether that was fortune or misfortune. Though she lived, her body was irrevocably altered by the experimental equipment's explosion, granting her a phase-shifting ability. According to SHIELD's records, this was caused by repeated cellular tearing and reassembly—a traumatic effect. This phase-shifting ability makes her move like a ghost, making it nearly impossible for her to maintain a normal human state."
Arthur rubbed his temples, finally understanding the gist of Natasha's explanation. "So she must be in constant agony," he murmured.
"That's right. Moreover, this condition will have an indelible impact on her very existence. In other words... she may ultimately vanish entirely due to this inherent characteristic."
Natasha explained, "SHIELD found her years ago and took her in. They trained her, controlled her condition, and kept her alive until now."
"Hmm, there must have been a price to pay for that, right? Otherwise, why bother training her?" Arthur glanced in the rearview mirror, handed control of the car to Blackie, and reached for a bottle of soda, taking a sip.
"Precisely," Natasha nodded. "She's been involved in all sorts of dirty work: assassination, espionage... the whole gamut of violent trades. Her sole motivation was SHIELD's promise to cure her."
"Naive..." Arthur scoffed. What was SHIELD, really? Stripped of its facade, it was nothing more than Hydra in disguise.
The original SHIELD, from its earliest days, had long ceased to exist.
Someone like Ava Starr, once she fell into Hydra's hands, became their ultimate weapon, just like the Winter Soldier.
The difference was that the Winter Soldier was brainwashed, while Ava Starr had her life force controlled. To survive, she had to constantly kill others, serving Hydra's will.
"Yes, it was all a lie," Natasha sighed regretfully. "They transformed an ordinary girl into a living killing machine, luring her step by step toward bloodstained hands with promises of a false future."
"What about now?" Arthur asked.
"Hmm... After SHIELD collapsed, she disappeared," Natasha replied. "Since she had ties to Hank, and you've been associating with him closely recently, I stumbled upon this while reviewing her file... Regardless of her past, she's a ticking time bomb. No one knows what she might think, do, or what consequences her actions could bring in the days ahead."
Arthur fell silent as well.
This wasn't quite what he remembered...
The girl's abilities were somewhat similar to the Ghost, though her codename was the same. In his memories, the Ghost was a man who possessed no special powers of his own but achieved similar effects through a specially designed battlesuit.
Now, it was a girl... whose body had mutated due to an explosion.
Is this from the later movies? Arthur mused inwardly. He had crossed over after the events of Avengers: Infinity War, so this person... might have originated in subsequent installments.
Of course, that didn't really matter.
Arthur quickly made up his mind. "Investigate her whereabouts. Start with Hank's former associates, especially those connected to Ava's father's generation. There might be relevant information there. Find her and report back to me. I'll bring her back."
(End Of This Chapter)
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