----
Truth be told, Nolan wasn't just trying to unlock the secrets of the Pym Particle. What he really wanted... was the dinsion it ca from.
If he could find that hidden plane, if he could claim it, then he wouldn't need Pym Particles at all. He'd beco the source.
But for now? Practicality first.
"Let's keep using it," he muttered, tuning out the suspicious glares from the captive trio Hank Pym, Hope, and Scott Lang as he drafted the schematics for a new extractor. He also sent Norman Osborn a list of rare materials to procure.
The particles were only half the equation. The vials used to store them impervious to quantum interference were another mystery entirely.
"Feels like I'm gonna starve to death here..."
Scott grumbled from the corner. Nolan hadn't fed them. He hadn't even acknowledged them, lost as he was in equations and quantum tunneling concepts.
Hope and Hank, anwhile, had shifted from resistance to... curiosity.
"Could I see the formula?" Hank asked, unable to suppress the itch. The fact that Nolan refined his work had been gnawing at him.
"I've got a better offer," Nolan said, glancing over. "Join my research division. Full access. And I'll help you retrieve your wife."
Hank's eyes narrowed. "You read my mind, didn't you?"
"Just your research. And the thoughts surrounding it," Nolan replied without apology.
For Hank, that was enough. He fell into silence.
"Take your ti," Nolan added. "I like working with brilliant minds. Makes progress faster."
---
As Nolan continued refining the extractor, another problem surfaced: how to use Pym Particles without relying on external devices. He mused aloud:
"Cathy Lang... she can manipulate her size by thought alone. That's not training that's resonance. Her body must've adapted to the dinsional frequency."
Multiple uses, imprinting... so kind of dinsional signature left behind. Like an access code slowly burned into your soul.
"Repeated exposure... causes resistance," Nolan theorized. "Recognition by the dinsion itself."
His real goal wasn't size manipulation it was assimilation. He wanted to store gamma radiation... maybe even a star within his own body. To do that, he'd need a dinsion to act as a buffer. The Pym Realm might be it.
Unlike the Dark Dinsion or Crimson Cosmos, both rich in energy and will, the Pym Dinsion felt... vacant. Untad.
"Could Vishanti energy stabilize access to it?" he wondered aloud.
Before his thoughts could go deeper, Scott's voice pierced the silence.
"Are you gonna feed us, or what? I an seriously, are you a robot?"
Nolan gave him a flat look. "You still think you're in a position to ask for things? This is the second ti you've broken into my lab."
Scott shrank in his seat figuratively, this ti.
"And don't think I missed your little stunt," Nolan added, turning to Hank. "You ca here because he told you I stole the Ant-Man suit. But the truth is, he lost it. You've been misled."
Hank and Hope turned in unison, glaring at Scott.
He sank further into his seat. "Okay, I may have slightly exaggerated..."
---
Nolan turned back to Hank. "Have you decided?"
"Show the formula," Hank said. "If it's legit... I'm in."
He didn't say it out of desperation but out of pride. If Nolan had truly surpassed his decades of work, then joining him would an reaching heights he could never reach alone.
Nolan casually projected the refined formula in front of Hank.
With his hands still bound, Hank could only study it with his eyes. The more he read, the more his skepticism faded replaced by pure, stunned disbelief.
"Wait... you used a Fourier transform on the spatial resonance equation?"
His voice caught. That one substitution exploded the complexity of the equation but the results were irrefutable. Cleaner variables. More precise yields. The extraction rate, which Hank thought he'd maxed out years ago, had doubled.
Twenty years, he had poured into that research. And this man had cracked it in a day.
"How did you even—?"
"Reading helps," Nolan said with a smirk. "Also, I trimd your frawork. You were overcomplicating it."
He slid over a design schematic next.
Hank blinked. The particle extractor was smaller, sleeker, and exponentially more efficient than anything he'd ever built.
"I'm in," Hank said at last. "On one condition. You help find Janet."
Nolan's grin widened. "Of course."
He ant it. Not just as a gesture of goodwill but because he wanted to enter the Quantum Realm himself.
If Marvel science was going to get weird... he wanted front-row access.
----
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