Alan had no intention of handling this himself. If he had planned to do everything alone from the start, there would have been no need to involve Scott or go through the subsequent chain of events.
He could have taken action personally, but to ensure the story unfolded smoothly, he avoided deliberately altering the trajectory of certain characters.
Take Scott, for example. However, Alan could help him establish a connection with the Avengers, thereby accelerating their eventual cooperation.
After all, they were bound to work together in the end—Alan was merely speeding up the process.
"Are we starting now?" Scott spread his palms, eager to showcase the results of his recent training.
Taking something from an abandoned factory shouldn't pose too much of an obstacle.
"Don't get ahead of yourself," Hope cautioned with a serious expression. "Even though it's an old factory, there's no guarantee that the Stark family hasn't assigned personnel to guard it. You need to be careful."
"Besides, you only just learned how to control the ants, and you still need to coordinate with the Ant-Man suit. Its capabilities depend entirely on your own proficiency."
Hank Pym nodded in agreement. Seeing that Hope had finally accepted the idea of Scott wearing the suit reassured him.
Thinking about his wife, Janet, being trapped in the Quantum Realm, he couldn't help but feel a tinge of worry for Scott, who sat across from him.
"Remember, Scott—shrinking and enlarging... you have to do it in the blink of an eye. Even a second's delay could cost you your life," Hank Pym reminded him once again.
Alan observed Scott in the Ant-Man suit. He already possessed the adaptability to think on his feet, and Alan believed he could handle it.
"Before we begin the mission, let's do a practice run," Alan said in a low voice. He also wanted Gwen and Wanda to witness the power of technology—shrinking and growing in an instant—rather than relying on magic.
"Looks like we're in for a good show. Where do we start?" Gwen asked with a smile, curious about Scott's training approach.
"Go through the keyhole," Hank Pym instructed, locking eyes with Scott.
Under everyone's watchful gaze, Scott walked to the door. The deep red wooden door was firmly shut as he loosened his muscles and pressed the button on his helmet.
He was confident—after all, he hadn't been slacking off during his training.
With a sharp "whoosh," Scott seemingly vanished before their eyes, slipping right through the keyhole.
Alan recalled how Scott had crashed into and broken several doors in earlier attempts.
But now, he had fully mastered control over the Ant-Man suit, shrinking and enlarging instantaneously.
Standing outside the door, Scott examined his hands before glancing around the hallway—he had succeeded.
The door behind him swung open, revealing Hank Pym and the others standing there, smiling with satisfaction.
"You did it, Scott," Hank said, now fully convinced of Scott's abilities. No wonder Alan had recommended him.
The group returned to the room, where Hope laid out the blueprint of the old Stark factory and began explaining their plan to steal the signal decoy prototype in detail.
"Remember, Scott—if anything goes wrong, you must retreat immediately. You cannot afford to be discovered."
Hope was thinking about his future—if Scott truly intended to join the Avengers, he couldn't be caught stealing from Tony Stark's property.
Otherwise, Tony would be the first to veto his membership.
"I'll handle it!" Scott committed each step of the plan to memory, ready for the mission ahead.
...
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