An hour later.
Hank Pym strode in, carrying two metal suitcases in his hands.
"Hope!" Pym's voice echoed through the laboratory.
"Father!" Hope went to meet him.
Pym didn't waste any words; he walked straight to an empty lab table and set the two suitcases down heavily.
*Click, click.*
The metal latches popped open, and Pym flipped the lids back.
In the left case, a brand-new red and black ant-man suit lay quietly.
In the right case was a sleeker, more streamlined suit, with a flight device consisting of two thin wings mounted on the back.
Pym's gaze moved past Hope to Homelander standing behind her.
"I take back my previous prejudices against you, Homelander." Pym's tone was somewhat stiff, but the gratitude in his eyes could not be faked.
"On behalf of my daughter and my... family, thank you."
"I am also helping my family, Dr. Pym." Homelander nodded slightly, behaving impeccably.
Prompt! Gained special popularity value +5000! (From Hank Pym)
Pym looked away and turned to Hope.
"Put it on, Hope."
Hope did not hesitate, reaching for the suit in the right case.
"Thank you, Father. I'll be ready to leave immediately."
"It's not just you leaving." Pym picked up the ant-man suit from the left case. "We are leaving together."
"No, I'm the one going, you can't go." Hope refused loudly. "The Quantum Realm is full of unknown dangers. You're older, and your body won't be able to adapt to the environment there!"
"I've already adjusted the suit's Internal Pressure Compensation System, and..." Pym stared into his daughter's eyes, speaking one word at a time.
"To save the person you love, you'd even throw away your life..."
He pointed to his own chest.
"Where do you think you inherited this reckless, crazy streak from?"
"Back then, I watched Janet disappear with my own eyes and spent half my life cowardly running away." Tears welled up in Pym's eyes.
"Now, that door has opened again. There is no way I'm going to sit in the lab like a useless waste, waiting for you to tell me the result!"
Hope looked into her father's stubborn eyes and knew she wouldn't be able to change the old mule's mind.
Her eyes reddened slightly, and she nodded vigorously.
"Fine! We'll go together."
Saying that, she looked at Homelander standing nearby.
"Homelander, do you... want to come with us?"
If a God Among Men accompanied them, this Quantum Realm rescue operation would undoubtedly have a massive additional layer of security.
Homelander looked at the father and daughter, his face showing a timely expression of struggle and regret.
"I want to go too, Hope. God as my witness, I want to enter that World personally and bring Daniel back more than anyone."
Then he spread his hands. "But, I can't."
"The World cannot do without me right now. The crises and turmoil it faces are increasing by the day, and countless eyes are watching from the darkness."
"I must stay here to protect my Earth and the people who believe in me..."
Homelander paused for a second and said solemnly, "So, Daniel... I can only leave him to you."
Hearing these words, the anticipation in Hope's eyes turned into understanding and respect.
She knew very well that what Homelander said was the truth.
The disasters Earth had experienced over the years had become more terrifying each time. If it weren't for this man turning the tide time and again, human civilization would have long since become a smear of ash in the Universe.
Today's Earth was not much safer than the unknown quantum space; the World needed Homelander.
"I understand." Hope nodded seriously. "You have a greater responsibility! You protect the World, and I will bring Daniel back. We'll divide the work."
Fifteen minutes later.
Hope and Pym were fully suited up, standing on the instrument's transmission platform. Before them was the shimmering blue mirror of the Quantum Tunnel.
"Initiate self-test procedure." Hope pressed the control panel on her wrist.
"Life support system normal, oxygen reserves at one hundred percent, Pym Particle regulator valve stable."
Hope pressed the control terminal on her arm again.
"Activate Quantum Radar, search for the Anchor Signal Daniel left behind."
Ten seconds, twenty seconds, thirty seconds.
*Beep, beep, beep!*
The instrument's prompt sounded, and a blinking red dot appeared on the screen.
"Found it!" Hope's voice from under her mask was full of ecstasy. "Capturing a weak Quantum Entanglement Reaction, it's him!"
However, before the smile could fully spread across Hope's face...
*Beep—*
After a long tone, the red dot displayed on the radar suddenly vanished.
"What happened?!" Hope's expression changed drastically, her fingers tapping frantically on the control panel.
"Signal interrupted, unable to establish connection," the system's prompt reported heartlessly.
"No... no!" Hope panicked. "Did he run into danger? Was the anchoring equipment destroyed?"
"Calm down, Hope!" Pym shouted to stop his daughter's panic.
"Spatial Storms in the Quantum Realm can block signals at any time; it doesn't necessarily mean something happened to him."
"I know, but we can't wait anymore." Hope closed her mask. "The system recorded the data packets from the last two seconds! Although incomplete, it's enough for us to perform a vague sector positioning!"
"That's only a vague positioning!" Pym reminded her. "A coordinate error could leave us thousands of kilometers away from him in the Quantum Realm!"
"Even if we're off by tens of thousands of kilometers, I'm going to find him," Hope said firmly.
She slammed the start button for the Gulliver Tunnel.
*Hum— Boom!*
The mirror of the Quantum Tunnel began to distort, and the light surged.
*Swish!*
The two of them instantly shrank, turning into two microscopic streams of light that were sucked into the quantum vortex.
Silence returned to the laboratory.
At this moment, the laboratory's airtight door slid open again.
Miss Skynet walked out elegantly, holding a glass of fresh milk in her hand.
She walked to Homelander's side and handed him the milk.
"A perfect performance, sir." Skynet smiled. "They didn't have a shred of doubt."
"You coordinated well too; the signal on that Stand-in Robot was shut down just in time."
Homelander took the milk and drank it in one go.
"Did you get all the data?"
"Yes, sir." Skynet reported. "I have fully integrated and recorded all the key parameters of the Gulliver Tunnel's fusion with Pym Particles. The steady-state algorithm for Pym Particles has been parsed."
"Very good." Homelander patted Skynet's shapely buttocks with satisfaction. "Then let's start a new project."
"First, the God-Glow Rod project." Homelander casually gave a name to this soon-to-be-born black technology.
"It needs to combine the safety of the Enlarging and Shrinking Lamp with the stability of Pym Particles to change the mass of any object at will."
"This is a priority; I might need it soon."