"What?"
Tony Stark was a bit puzzled: "Why isn't the answer me, but that silly man? Even if the answer is B or D, I could accept it!"
Scott Lang was also a bit dumbfounded at the moment: "Why me?"
Steve Rogers said helplessly, "The least likely option is the correct answer. To be honest, I didn't even consider option 'A' as the least likely. I can only say that our considerations were not comprehensive enough this time."
Natasha looked at Scott Lang in astonishment, "You will be Mr. Key in the future."
At the same time, the correct answer's relevant video began playing on the screen.
The scene was on the rooftop of a tall building, with a peculiar business van parked on the rooftop. The van's cargo area was open, but instead of seats, it displayed strange devices.
Next to it were Hank Pym and his daughter Hope, along with a middle-aged woman with white hair.
Seeing this scene, Dr. Hank Pym, who had already been transported back to Earth, widened his eyes in astonishment. "Janet, she... she's back!"
His daughter Hope stood up in excitement, looking at the screen outside with teary eyes. "Mom, she's alive and is with us in the future!"
In the picture, besides Scott Lang in the Ant-Man suit, the rest were Hank Pym's family.
They operated the quantum tunnel inside the van, and Scott Lang used it to enter the Quantum Realm. He had to go to the Quantum Realm to collect some kind of particle.
Scott Lang completed the mission, and external communication was normal. After a five-second countdown, Hank Pym and the others outside would pull him out of the Quantum Realm.
"Great, prepare to return through the tunnel, countdown 5, 4, 3..."
Scott heard the countdown suddenly stop, feeling puzzled. "Hello? Hank, don't play around. You told me not to mess around earlier."
However, he didn't see Hank Pym's family outside operating the equipment; they had all turned into ashes and drifted away with the wind...
Only the fallen walkie-talkie still transmitted Scott Lang's voice:
"Hank? Hope? Janet?"
"Team, respond! Seriously, don't joke, send me up quickly!"
"..."
"Anyone?!"
Seeing this, Hank Pym and his daughter, who had just been excited, were shocked, and their smiles froze on their faces.
"What's going on?" Hope was still bewildered.
But Hank Pym immediately realized and gritted his teeth. "Thanos! It's him; that madman snapped his fingers!"
"Truly... they're so unfortunate."
Natasha glanced at the stunned Scott Lang beside her and shook her head. "But I think after Thanos did such crazy things, there should be many experiences like Dr. Pym's family."
"Scott, you're luckier. You entered the Quantum Realm before that happened and avoided this catastrophe."
Scott Lang took a deep breath and then shrugged. "So what do I do now? Without them operating from the outside, I'll be trapped in the Quantum Realm!"
"No, you'll safely get out. Keep watching," Steve Rogers reassured him.
In the video, the camera switched to a cluttered warehouse, where mischievous rats crawled around an old car, the same business van with the quantum tunnel!
The frantic rats accidentally activated the quantum tunnel, and with a flash of light, Scott Lang was thrown out of the cargo area.
After leaving the warehouse, Scott Lang witnessed the world after Thanos snapped his fingers. Once-thriving cities were now deserted, and the streets were lined with vacant houses.
Overgrown vegetation and trees grew everywhere, and there were few people on the streets.
When Scott Lang found the memorial square, he was shocked by the countless monuments that recorded the names of those who had 'disappeared suddenly.'
Because the catastrophe happened so suddenly, many people turned to ashes and disappeared. In the eyes of the unaware public, they couldn't determine what had happened. Were the disappeared people dead, or had they gone to another world? Survivors preferred to believe the latter.
Scott Lang anxiously searched for names on the monument, and what worried him the most was his daughter. He didn't find her name but found his own.
This relieved him, and he went to see his daughter. After a brief conversation, he immediately drove to the Avengers' base.
Shouting through the surveillance cameras outside the gate: "I'm Scott Lang, we met a few years ago at the airport in Germany. I was Giant-Man at the time; I had a mask on, do you remember? Ant-Man, have you heard of Ant-Man?"
Captain America, and Natasha Romanoff, who were guarding the base, were quite surprised because, according to official records, Scott Lang was also a victim of Thanos's snap.
Captain America even doubted if this video was from the past.
After Scott Lang met with them, he asked, "Have any of you learned quantum physics?"
Natasha replied, "Only in conversation."
Scott Lang continued, "Well, five years ago, during the Thanos incident, I was in a place called the Quantum Realm. The Quantum Realm is like an independent microcosm, and to enter it, you have to become incredibly small. Hope should have pulled me out, but then Thanos snapped, and I got stuck there."
Natasha expressed sympathy for his ordeal. "That must have been a very long five years."
"That's what I wanted to say."
Scott Lang said seriously, "Actually, it's not long, it was just five hours for me. The rules in the Quantum Realm are different, including time."
He then grabbed something to eat and continued to explain to Steve and Natasha how they could use the Quantum Realm to travel back to a time before Thanos invaded Earth.
Steve Rogers understood, "Wait a minute, are you talking about a time machine?"
Scott Lang denied it outright, "No, of course not, it's not a time machine! It's more like..."
He pondered for a while and finally squeezed out a sentence, "Yes, it's a time machine. I know it sounds crazy, too crazy, but I've been thinking... There must be a way."
Scott Lang was losing confidence as he spoke, as his understanding of the Quantum Realm was limited.
However, Natasha and Captain America thought that this seemingly crazy idea might have a chance, considering that a raccoon could send her emails. What could be crazier than that?