What If?

Chapter 3: Five Years Later

Five Years Later...

New York City was dark, barely alive... The Statue of Liberty had boats piled all over the bay while the Citi Field Stadium was completely empty, the parking lot filled with cars that have been there for years as Sam was seen in a support group, consisted of people that have lost loved ones from the Decimation.

Grieving Man: (Is seen among the people attending the meeting) I went on a date the other day... It's the first time in Five Years, and uh... You know? I'm sitting to eat dinner, and we talked.

Sam: (Folded his arms as he looked at the man) What did you talk about?

Grieving Man: Eh, same old crap. How all things have changed, and... My job, his job, how much we miss the Mets. (Sighs) And then things got quiet, and then... He cried as they were serving the salads.

Starlin: (Is seen among those in the group) What about you?

Grieving Man: (Squinted his eyes) I cried just before dessert... But I'm seeing him again tomorrow, so...

Sam: That's great, man... You did the hardest part; you had no idea how it was gonna go, but you took the big jump forward and embraced it. And if Captain America were standing here with us, he'd say the same thing too. In fact, I believe he'd say somewhere along the lines about how brave we need to take those baby steps to take to try... Become whole again, to find a purpose, and where it lies in life we live in... As much I'd hate the say it, but if Cap were here, he'd tell us that we gotta move on. (Sighs) Gotta move on... The world is in our hands, and well... It's up to us to gotta do somethin' with it... (Shrugs) Because... Why not just kill all of us?

In San Francisco, we turn to an empty warehouse called "U-Store-It-Ur-Self Storage", as the inside of the building has a lot of equipment that was placed after the fallout of the Decimation. One of these items happened to be Luis' van, which was inside of a fence as a rat was seen crawling inside of the vehicle, right on top of the device that was used for the Quantum Tunnel Five Years before. The rat pressed a button, and then that was when a whirring sound emitted, activating the Tunnel as the back of the Van was suddenly busted open, revealing the feminine figure known as the Wasp, AKA Hope Van Dyne, who fell on top of an old mattress as she groaned from the impact.

Hope: (Took her Helmet off, gasping) Ah! (Looks at her Suit, revealing circuitry sparking as she tapped on it to stop, and then looked around) What the hell? (Gets up, looking around the warehouse) Scott? Mom, Dad? (Sighs) Where am I?

Soon, she began to make her escape from the storage unit, unlocking the fence and then driving the van out while taking one particular Security Guard by surprise as he watched her drive right outside into the city.

Afterward, she took a drive to one neighborhood that was seen to be abandoned, as she took a look around at what transpired in what used to be a nice neighborhood.

Hope: (Looks around at the neighborhood) Jesus... (Sees a kid riding past her in a bicycle) Hey. (Gets out of the van) Hey, kid! (Gets his attention as he stopped) Where the hell is everyone? (Sees him staring at her, before he made his decision to leave) Hey! Ugh...

She turned to walk back to the van when she noticed a large memorial with big orange tombstones, making her go and investigate as she read each stone, all of them reading "The Vanished", all of them containing a list of names.

Hope: (Looks at the tombstones) Vanished? What?

Hope began to look at the various names listed while trying to contact her parents when she suddenly saw a couple of particular names. She started walking to the tombstone, as she read not only her name but the name of her parents as well, causing her to freak out.