Ant-Man & Spider-Man: Earth's Mightiest Scientists

Chapter 8: There's A Dinosaur In Our Basement

Author's Note: This is the first original chapter for the story but it's inspired by the events of Marvel Mystery Comics No. 91 (1948) and this also serves as the beginning of the Tiny Trio Arc.

Pym Laboratories

Words cannot express how truly excited Lee Kearns was to be actually working with the Ant-Man and his cohorts face to face as it has been a long time since he last run into the titular costumed hero. About a week and a half ago since the Pilai incident, Ant-Man revealed his secret identity over the telephone as a sign of trust and thankfully their call was scrambled in order to prevent nosy outsiders from listening in on their conversation. When the former agent was told that the Ant-Man was indeed in fact Hank Pym, he was somewhat surprised at first but then Kearns was able to connect the dots as he knew that the size-changing adventurer had to have scientific know-how in order to come up with the ideas for his gear.

Once Lee handed his letter of resignation to his superiors, he booked a flight to New York and whistled for a taxi cab to take him over to Hank Pym's new laboratory in Midtown. While he sat in the back, Lee glanced out the window and he saw The Fantasti-Flare going off into the night sky as it was in the shape of a fiery number four. That's when Lee instantly realized that he was at the heart of hero country and he couldn't be happier.

"All right, buddy. We're here," The taxi driver yawned to him as he stopped the car near the entrance of the warehouse. The tall brunette man, who was in a decent amount of shape, stepped out of the vehicle and paid the cab fare which satisfied the driver immensely. "Pleasure doing business with ya."

As the taxi driver took off, Lee was now standing in front of Pym Labs and he took in a deep breath as this was a pivotal moment for him.

"Well, here goes nothing," Lee muttered as he ringed the doorbell to the laboratory, and Doctor Cobbwell was the only person who answered it.

"I must say that I'm quite proud of myself for finally getting this infernal thing to work," Cobbwell stated due to recently adding a doorbell at the front entrance and he was having some difficulty with it for a few days. He now focused his attention over to Lee as Newton was pleasantly surprised to have a visitor. "Where are my manners today?! How may I help you, good sir?"

"I'm Lee Kearns and I'm here to speak with Dr. Pym about a potential employment opportunity that's lined up for me," Lee answered while scratching the back of his neck.

"Of course right this way, Mr. Kearns," Cobbwell politely gestured for him to come inside the building and escorted him over to where Hank, Peter and Janet are at the moment. "But I have to tell you that Dr. Pym and his assistant currently both have their hands full right about now."

"I can understand that these brainy types always gettin' sidetracked with their research that time can slip by them," Lee shrugged his shoulders but he couldn't be more wrong.

"...That's not what I was referring to at all," Doctor Cobbwell sighed as he may have to show Mr. Kearns what he truly meant by that. "See for yourself."

In the living room of the laboratory, Hank and Peter were moving a fancy couch around while Janet was in the middle of supervising of them.

"A little more to the left. No, no! Move it a bit to the right," Janet ordered the duo as they were exhausted from the constant rearrangement of the furniture all day.

"I think I can speak for everyone by saying could you please make up your mind, Janet!" Hank blurted out respectfully as his muscles were beginning to ache and he was definitely going to be feeling soreness in the morning.

"Yeah, no kidding!" Peter said as he could effortlessly lift the heavy couch, but he was starting to get very annoyed with Janet's indecisiveness. It wasn't just the couch but the coffee table, the television set, a chair, and even the bookshelf. "Tell me again why we're doing this? How is this suppose to 'harmonize' the lab or whatever?"