It had been a week since Alex had last summoned a random SCP and the monotonous days of just sitting at home and working in his command bunker blended together.
His time went to dealing with requests for funds or D-class personnel or for some rather extreme experiments. Since Alex was filling in for the entire O5 council as well as for the ethics committee all this extra work was pushed towards him.
He could only feel lucky that the Foundation was still so small, as everything he did just added more work to his table, like now as he was dealing with dozens of requests for nuking Wakanda and taking all their vibranium for Foundation use daily.
Given what they had so far done with the stuff, Alex had to admit he was really damn tempted to get his hands on not just the vibranium itself but also all the tech hidden away under that hologram.
'Maybe I can get my hands on more?' That idea slowly took root in his mind, and with each additional request for the magic metal, made him more and more tempted to ruin the day of some fearsome arms dealer.
It was on one of those otherwise boring days, he was informed that one Dr. Pym had called and was asking questions. "Should I invite him over here for a chat? Or send him somewhere else? Decisions, decisions."
Alex, drumming his fingers against the leather armrest of his chair, thought aloud. He didn't know much about Pym from the movies. One thing he did know was the fact that Pym was the first ant-man and a brilliant mind worth a fortune.
"The best way to get him on board would be starting with vibranium. Not talking about SCPs, just the study of vibranium, and from there, let him pick up the so-called secrets of the Foundation. Yes, have the others working with him whisper about SCPs. If he thinks he learned about it on his own, even if I bring proof that he is wrong, he won't believe me!"
Alex smacked the armrest as he decided on a course of action. He quickly sent out emails and made a few calls. He would soon get his hands on the key to ant-man and maybe even not just the old ant himself but also new ones. As long as he could save his wife, he could get just about anything from the man; he was sure of it.
However, getting pym would make the need for more vibranium all the more urgent. He made a call to SITE-014 to have them set up everything needed for Pym to enter into the trap set for him willingly.
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[With Hank Pym]
When Hank had been kicked out of the very company, he himself founded by who he thought of as a friend he had been furious. When his own daughter sided with the damned betrayer, he had only been all the angrier.
No sooner had he left the building before he was stopped by men offering him a job. At first, he thought they might have been the reason he was fired, but after accusing them, he quickly learned the truth. They knew about the plot against him while he was blind to it.
He didn't really give them much attention after that. Sure, he took the card and promised he would call them later, but that was mainly to get them to back off.
Getting back home, he couldn't help but start thinking back on things. All the signs had been as clear as day. He slowly lost control of the company and didn't even notice it! Bit by bit, he was cut off and shut out.
He felt like an idiot for not seeing it. He remembered the whispers and strange looks he had gotten for months! Everyone in the damn company knew it was happening except him!
After that, he spent time just hiding at home while trying to get over the betrayal of his friend and daughter. The time off had also been good for him since it had allowed him to see so much he had missed when he thought back over the years.
Still, Hank was used to being busy, and he quickly found himself restless and wanting to do something. It was at this point he remembered the job offer he had gotten back then. He wasn't interested in the job but the people who gave it.
He hadn't thought about it until now, but those people knew he was going to get kicked out, and sure, everyone in the company knew, but few knew when it would happen. So these people had planted spies deep inside his company.
This had sent him into a long search for who these people could be, and the more he looked, the more surprised, impressed, and scared he got. He found nothing at all. He had no clue from his memories about who they were inside the company, and they didn't seem to exist anywhere in the world.
Sure, the name "the Foundation" was not really unique. The problem was that there were a whole lot of foundations, and not a single one fit the bill for the company that invited him that day. Which means that it is a black company, one that didn't exist in any official scene.
He wasn't a stranger to those kind of companies or organizations, after all he used to work for S.H.I.E.L.D. and it didn't get more shady then those guys. Which only made the fact that he couldn't find these guys all the more impressive.
Even S.H.I.E.L.D. was in essence a public agency, even if they had no real oversight and operated off the books. He knew that working outside the laws could bring benefits.
Hank himself was not new to working outside some laws; he had done that before and really didn't think much about most of those laws out there. He knew that they didn't mean shit to anyone with money or power.
Still, he did get curious about the whole thing; the more time he spent looking and finding nothing, the more interested he got. He had quite a bit of faith in his abilities, so the fact that he found nothing was as impressive as it was surprising.
In the end, he figured that he really didn't have much to lose by giving them a call. It wasn't like they could do anything to him, right? Sure, he didn't use the suit anymore, but he had it, and he could use it if needed.
Calling the number, he only had to wait for a moment before his call was connected. "Hello, this is Hank Pym here, I'm calling about a job offer."
"Ah yes, Mr. Pym, I'm glad you called. I do hope you enjoyed some time off." The voice of a woman came back. 'Young sounding, but also educated.'
Hank was used to dealing with people of a certain type, and he was reasonably sure the woman here was not just working in HR.
"Well, I'm sure you can understand why I wouldn't start a new job as soon as I left the old one. Been a long time since I had proper time off."
The voice just giggled at him. "Yes, we fully understand that; we knew we might not get you to join us. We simply had to try though; you are a brilliant mind that should not be passed over if possible. Cross made a big mistake in letting you go, Mr. Pym. He thought you were done after the pym particle, but we here are sure that you can make many other things than just that."
The talk of his most prized achievement put him on guard. He had expected they might want it; he knew Darren was no doubt trying to remake his work with that daughter of his right now.
"So you are after my Pym particle? If that is the case, then there is no point to this. I'm not giving it to anybody!" Hank didn't let his decision on that matter remain unheard.
"Well, I would lie if I said it wouldn't be something we would like. But we would still want you to work for us even without it. what we value much more is the mind that made it in the first place." Her words did little to make Hank lower his guard, but it did feel good to have his brilliant mind valued rather than just one invention, no matter how great.
"So you hope for something better than my masterpiece? You sure are aiming high, miss… I never did get your name." Hank decided to dig for some information.
"I was wondering if you would ask that, Mr Hank. I am Dr. Brown, Dr. Emilia Brown, and I am the head of the research site you would hopefully start at."
'Emilia Brown?' Not a name known to Hank, he quickly tried to check the net for a Dr. Emilia Brown but came up with nothing.
"Can't say I have ever heard of you before, Miss Brown. Perhaps you have worked on something I would know about?" He pushed further.
"Oh, I would have been surprised if you knew of my work. My current employer likes to remain secret, so our work is rarely made public, and as a high-ranking researcher, they helped me cover up any trace of my old life. It does get lonely sometimes not to have contact with my family, but I don't regret it. Accepting the promotion was well worth it."
Hearing that, Hank only grew more sure that this was some underworld black tech company he was dealing with. However, being able to cover up a doctor like that couldn't be easy for sure.
"I am not really sure you are selling this job all that well talking about dark things like that, Dr. Brown." Hank was not sure if she was an actual doctor, but he decided to give her the benefit of the doubt and take her words at face value.
"ahh, well, I'm sorry about that; my mind is not fully in this. I just got the news that my request for a new sample of vibranium has passed, so we get more to play around with soon." The woman did sound excited about that, properly too excited as she gave away some important information like that.
"Vibranium, you say! You have Vibranium to study? And more than one sample?" Hank was shocked to hear about that. He knew a bit about it, and he would never forgive Stark for using all of it for a damn shield of all things!
Sure, he knew that sometimes a gram was found here and there, but it was always sold for nearly impossible prices, and the low amount made it damn near useless.
"Yes, we do have Vibranium to work with. Not much, though, and what we have in the organization, we have to share between many teams and sites around the world. Since the brass decided to buy up 10 kilos of it, we have all been busy. It truly is an amazing thing. Which is why I have been requesting more daily since then."
Hank could hardly believe what he heard, 10kg? Surely, that was impossible. There shouldn't be that much in the world as a whole! Not unless it was that damned shield of Stark's.
"Are you joking with me now? I know about vibranium, and I know for a fact that it's so rare it's all but impossible to get more than a gram or two in a year, and that is only due to pure luck." Hank couldn't help but say.
"That is just what they want you to think, Mr Pym. While it is indeed rare, there is quite a bit more of it than you would think. They simply hoard it all to keep prices so high. Even this new sample I have gotten is something we found in the British Museum. An artifact was made of it, and they didn't know, so we helped ourselves to it."
Hank could indeed see someone having a large chunk of it and selling it per gram just to keep the price at the level it was at. And the idea that an artifact was made of it? Well, Stark had made it into something useless, so he could almost see other people doing the same in the past.
"And I would get to work with it if I joined you? And what about the whole getting one's past erased? I don't want that." Hank really wanted to play around with something as rare as vibranium, so he started to ask about the job.
"Well, if you joined us, you would be working at my site, and given your skills, you could easily work on most projects. However, only if the needed clearance is low enough. To get a higher security clearance, you would indeed need to dedicate yourself to us. If you don't wish to do that well, we can still allow you to work on the vibranium, but anything you learn or invent will belong to us." The woman started to explain.
"Well, I do believe it might be possible to work something out then." Hank finally said after some time. He really just couldn't let the chance to use Vibranium for something better than Stark pass up.
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[SITE-001]
Alex was happy that Pym had accepted the offer and would start working already tomorrow. The man sure had been impatient on working with the vibranium. Alex didn't care if something would change with some plot because he stole the artifact. He didn't care about Wakanda at all and even hoped some SCP would deal with them.
'Now that I think about it. Their hologram shield is perfect for hiding some containment SITE under.'
The people living in hiding and believing to be unknown to the world didn't know that their fate was slowly getting decided as one man's patience was getting worn down by the constant requests of his subordinates.