Chapter 1
"Another disaster diverted for the day, what say we head back to the lab and I treat you to some sugar water?" Scott Lang grinned as he flew through the streets of New York on the back of one of his flying ants, he had affectionately called Antoinette. "That sound good, girl?" But then as they were passing Bleecker Street, Scott motioned for her to stop as he spotted a peculiar looking character outside the door of number 177a. He watched as the man with the shoulder length black hair looked about himself in a suspicious manner before opening the door and entering the brownstone. "Well that doesn't look shifty at all." he mumbled and directed Antoinette to fly down onto the windowsill as to get a better look at what was going on. "Probably just one of Doc's clients." he tried to assure himself as he dismounted the ant and peered through the windowpane. Scott then watched as the man began to pull open a cabinet draw in a hurried manner, rummaging through it's content but not finding what he was looking for; he slammed the draw shut with a disgruntled snort.
"Damn it, Strange." the man hissed as he riffled through a small victorian envelop box. "Where are you keeping it?"
"Stay here." Scott whispered to Antoinette as he squeezed under the window frame and into the house. As he did so however, the other man suddenly became very stiff in his movements as he closed the lid of the box and stood with his back straight, his eyes alert and searching.
"Where are you?" asked the man as he pulled something out of his pocket. "I know there's someone there."
Scott crept quietly to the edge of the windowsill and calculating the distance between it and the nearby table, he did a running jump and was caught midair in a glass tumbler. "Whoa." he mumbled and landed with an "ouf" against the wooden table as the glass was tipped and slammed firmly against the surface.
"What on earth." the man muttered as he steadily lowered himself until his eyes were level with the glass. He then seemed to regain his composure and brought his other hand closer as he narrowed his eyes at Scott. And the miniature man could see he was holding an intricately carved stick, no not a stick but a wand. "Tell me who you are and if you're telling me the truth, I'll let you go? Lie to me, and I will make the next few moments very unpleasant for you. And I'm running out of both time and patience."
Scott stared deep into the man's deep black irises which made him feel like he was back at school and compelled a part of him to be truthful which was backed up by his gut instinct and, so he answered, "I'm Ant-man but my friends call me Scott."
The man stood to his full height and appeared to ponder this for a moment and prompted, "Scott Lang?"
"Y-yeah." Scott managed flummoxed as to how this complete stranger knew his full name.
"Ah, you're one of Stephen's acquaintances." the man nodded and lifted the glass, allowing Scott to move from underneath it. "Now, if you don't mind, I have some pressing matters to attend to."
"You know Doc Strange?" Scott questioned as he followed the man across the table and onto a pedestal while the man in question had returned to searching the various cabinets and draws.
"Obviously." the man replied as he sighed, impatiently bolting to the other end of the room and started examining a glass case.
"Know what you're looking for?" Scott queried. "Maybe I could help you look for it?"
The man paused in his actions and then answered, "I need to find a pentacle studded with rubies and tanzanite and return it to Strange, forthwith."
"Any particular area or-"
"He didn't give specifics, only that it was in this room... somewhere."
"That's helpful."
"You have know idea."
As they quietly searched every nook and cranny trying to find this illusive pendent, Scott proposed, "Hey, so you know my name but I never got your's?"
The man paused again and said in a reluctant tone, "Severus, only Severus. I shan't tolerate abbreviations or nicknaming of any kind, understood?"
"No nonsense and straight to the point, I like it." Scott laughed before squeezing through a keyhole and into a cigar box. Although the box did include three fat cuban cigars, it also had several letters, a box of matches and hidden beneath it was a pentacle with red and purple gemstones embedded in it. "Bingo!" He then heard hurried footsteps and seconds later the box lid was opened and the man carefully plucked up the pentacle. Severus scanned it and turned it over in his hands and sprinted for the door. "Hey wait?" But the man was gone out of the room and through the front door and seemingly forgetting all about Scott; who rushed back to the window. Slipping back under the frame and climbing back onto Antoinette as he stated, "Follow that wizard." They flew quickly and nearly caught up with the man, that was until the wizard took off from the ground and flew away into the middle distance. "Got to admit, I didn't see that coming."
***
Severus Snape flew through the streets of Greenwich Village, paying no heed to the gawking muggles below as he clutched the pentacle in his fist. It had taken so long to find the blasted thing, he only hoped he was in time to aid the sorcerer. He then spotted Stephen Strange, who at present was tightly wrapped in a thick blue tentacle as the monstrous abomination of a creature loomed over the Sorcerer Supreme. The monster had the back legs of a tiger, the head and claws of a mole and several thick blue tentacles that rived and squirmed. What it was, Severus didn't know and didn't care to know as it stood strangling Strange. "Stephen!" he shouted and once the other man turned his head towards him, Severus took the opportunity and threw the pentacle. "Here!" Just managing to dodge one tentacle while another wrapped around his right ankle. But thinking fast, he blasted it away with his wand.
Strange caught it and pointing it towards the creature he choked out, "By the Pentacle of Chino, I banish thee back to the dimension from whence you came!" The pentacle then dowsed the creature in a sharp magenta light, the monster withered and disappeared and with it so too did it's grip on Strange, who with the help of his cloak of levitation; gently floated back down onto the street. Hurriedly making his way over to the sorcerer, Severus' eyes and hands went straight to the red marks left behind from how hard the tentacles had bound the other man, Severus' fingers tracing the lines. "I'm quiet alright, Severus. Thanks in large part to you for finding the Pentacle of Chino."
"No thanks to you." Severus returned with a raised eyebrow. "I would have been longer if not for-"
"If not for a little help from a friendly neighborhood Ant-man." Scott Lang cut in as he hovered on the back of a flying ant near Severus' shoulder. "Good to see you again, Doc."
"Scott Lang, it has been a while." Stephen smiled. "I see you've met my husband, Severus." At the word "husband" Severus tensed up and took hold of the bottom his his right sleeve.
"I didn't know your bread was buttered that way." Scott commented.
"Truth be told, it's more of a block of butter with a bready center." Stephen chuckled.
"Well, in any case, thank you for your assistance but we should be heading back now." Severus said firmly.
"So soon?" Stephen asked softly. Severus did not verbally respond but found Stephen's eyes with his own and it was clear to him that the wizard was uncomfortable. "Alright then." Then turning to Scott, he reluctantly stated, "We'll be going now. Perhaps another time?" And with that said and done the two magic users flew together back to the Sanctum Sanctorum.
***
"Well that was... for a lack of a better word: strange." Scott mumbled, adjusting his helmet and then asking, "What do you think, Antoinette?" To which Antoinette clicked her mandibles in a curious manner. "Yeah, you and me both. Come on, it's time we headed home, too." And off they went, heading to Scott's secret lab in Westchester Square.