4481/Training to the Max...ima

Training to the Max...ima
Date of Scene:	24 December 2020
Location:	Quarry in Upstate NY
Synopsis:	Scott is working on his size-changing when he's accosted by an alien princess intent on stealing his power. Scott nobly and bravely runs away.
Cast of Characters:	Scott Lang, Maxima

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Scott Lang has posed:
There was some training one could do at home. There were some heroes who could use the Avengers facility to learn how to best harness their powers. When it came to shrinking that was just fine. But growing? That took a bit more space and a potential for a lot more damage. Thankfully the US was dotted with 'abandoned' quarries, this one just a bit different for the amount of 'No Trespassing' signs the woods around the old stone pit had, an occasional security camera of armed guard. He didn't know if the Avengers owned it or SHIELD, Scott just knew he was told to go there if he wanted to train as 'Giant-Man' since he took out part of the ceiling at the mansion once.

And what a 'gym' set-up he had. An enlarged child's toy, it was a massive weeble wobble clown balloon, the kind one could punch and it would stand up again. Only this one was 80 feet tall. An enlarged jumping rope for cardio. And of course all the big rocks he could ever want. The point was less about building muscle and more about maintaining his size without passing out, the simple physical exertions there to help him test how long he could maintain. But then at the top of the quarry? A combination of hamster habit trails and Legos put together into an obstacle course. Grow, shrink, repeat, test his endurance on not only growing but rapidly changing between his size extremes. From the amount of sweat under his helmet and the huffing and puffing of the 100 foot tall man, he's been at it for a bit already. Though for Scott that might well just mean 20 minutes. In either case, he stood out in the otherwise quiet forests of New York.

Maxima has posed:
While Maxima's first priority remains the location and recovery of the Almeracian city taken by Brainiac, that is not her only objective on Earth. There is still the matter of her rogue simulacrum that needs to be dealt with as well. With leads on the city currently at a dead end, Maxima spread her psychic senses across the region searching for another like her own, expanding further and further as she tried to locate her rogue copy.

The faintest ping had registered in the region known as 'Upstate New York' and while it was far from certain, it was enough to merit investigating. So it is that Maxima is flying through that region's skies when she comes upon a peculiar site, of which she has not seen the like before. It looks like an Earthling in an odd sort of armor, but much bigger than any Earthling should be, usually they are quite small and puny but this one, this one was perhaps 100 feet tall. Her curiosity piqued, Maxima halts her hypersonic flight and descends to a few hundred feet above, watching, studying the strange Earthling curiously.

Scott Lang has posed:
Punch, punch, punch. The clown doesn't offer much resistance, it's billboard sized smiling face rocking backwards to bump the quarry floor, then back up for another hit. Jump rope to the count of 20, each slap of the massive rope on the ground like a cannon shot sounding through the forested valley. Pick up two boulders then, squat, lift, squat lift. Scott drops them after 10 repetitions and it's then Maxima gets an even weirder site, for he reaches up grasping the crater-like edge of the rock quarry, hefting himself up partway before seemingly vanishing. Of course the edge he was pulling himself up towards was also where the toy-like obstacle course lay.

Scott has to take a second, breathing hard and his head swimming after the rapid transition in size combined with the exertion. He'd done five repetitions so far. If he could complete just one more it would beat his record. Obstacle course, giant workout, and one more obstacle course. Just, he needed a sec. He lowers his helmet and coughs, unaware of his onlooker above. Then the helmet snaps back into place. Up a string hanging from the folding table, climbing hand over hand to get up to the start of his run.

Maxima has posed:
Maxima tilts her head to the side when the giant vanishes, curiouser and curiouser. Yet she can still feel his mental presence. Not gone then, but where... She spends a moment zeroing in on where the mental presence seems to be, and then in true Maxima style simply drops out of the sky, landing next to where she expects Scott to be with a ground shaking impact that sends shockwaves through the obstacle course.

She doesn't seem to have realized the course is even there, one massive metal booted foot crushing the obstacle that Scott was just about to run to head towards next, as the amazonian Almeracian Crown-Princess towers above like a titaness before the Ant-Man.

"Hmmm, I still sense his mental presence, where could he be?" Maxima muses aloud to herself.

Scott Lang has posed:
The initial impact alone is enough to mangle half the course, the folding table holding the first part of it collapsing as the legs give out on it. Scott teeters and thankfully only falls on his ass. Inside a basic hamster plastic tube littered with tiny glued on jumps and handholds making it more difficult to get around, he looks around the yellow-tinted plastic in confusion. "What in the..." is as far as he gets before a boot bigger than his house comes slamming down through the ceiling before him. He throws up his arms as bits of shrapnel rain down on him but none of it is truly dangerous.

"Seriously?! This thing cost 20 bucks and took a whole afternoon to build!" he snaps as he gets to his feet and steps out through the broken tunnel beside Maxima's foot, the arch of her heel enough he could drive a truck under it it seems, and glowers up at her, her words booming down from above like distant thunder. A quick jump or two puts him a good several feet behind her before he reverts back to his human size, though he's still huffing and panting. His helmet lowers with a snap, his disheveled hair sticking to his scalp with sweat and he's hunched over slightly much as he'd like to stand up straight. "Hey, hey you. Baywatch Albany or whatever you are. This, did you miss the signs? It's private property lady. You need to leave. And you owe me 20 bucks for the habit trail," he adds. He really should realize such an outfit probably means 'super' but he was tired. And cranky.

Maxima has posed:
Maxima doesn't seem to notice anything until Scott's mental presence shifts to behind and then when she turns around there he is, a regular six foot tall Earthling. Curiouser and curiouser. "Ah there you are." The Baywatch remark seems utterly lost on the alien imperial princess. "You are quite peculiar for an Earthling, moments ago you seemed quite large, but then you disappeared, how?" Scott's ire, commands to leave, and demands for payment, are seemingly ignored in the face of her own curiosity. "Twenty bucks? Do you mean deer? No the image in your mind is the green rectangles this planet exchanges for currency." Or maybe he just wasn't even understood by the alien young woman.

Scott Lang has posed:
Weird clothes, revealing and yet no sign of the Winter chill bothering her. A hugely impactful landing, in fact now that he looks Scott can see a slight crater where she came down with enough force to make his obstacle course collapse. Talk of 'Earthlings' and images in his mind, all with an odd accent, like it was almost every accent at the same time. Scott was tired yes but he was still able to put things together. "Oh hell, you're an alien aren't you?" Why does Scott sound, weirdly unimpressed by this. He groans and straightens up, a hand to the small of his back as he leans back and elicits a crack.

"I guess that means I'm not getting any money off you. Alright look, I dealt with a demon less than a week ago, there was a ninja after that, I'm trying to get a workout in to keep my mind off Christmas Even and Christmas morning without my daughter, I don't have...I don't need this right now! Can't you just, can't you just shoo? I'll pretend I never saw you! There's a dairy farm down the road there, you can go abduct a cow or whatever you're here for," Scott pleads, almost a whine in his voice. It's been a hard, weird week even by his standards as he walks by the Queen and starts trying to fix his tiny obstacle course...starting with the toppled Lego section of course. At least THAT part was fun to build as he crouches down a couple feet from her and starts snapping colored blocks together. All without answering her question.

Maxima has posed:
When Scott attempts to walk past Maxima, an arm that might as well be made of folded steel for how difficult it is to move is thrust out into his path, barring passage. "I am Maxima, Crown Princess of the Almeracian Empire, and you did not answer my question. You will do so immediately."

She glances over at the crushed remains of the 'obstacle course', while she listens to at least a little bit of what Scott is going on about. "Now I have another question. Your daughter was taken from you?"

Scott Lang has posed:
Scott oofs as he hits the arm. Almost reflexively he tries pushing against it at first...and finds much to his chagrin it doesn't so much as twitch. Oh crap. He hops back a step or two and looks at her with a growing suspiscion, resisitng the urge to power up his gauntlets, suspecting already they would do him as much good as a rubber band. Instead he just lets out a sigh and pinches the bridge of his nose. "Maxima. Princess. Of course you are. Alright, fine. Pleased to meet ya your highness. I'm Scott Lang of the United Stated of America. And no, my daughter wasn't...well she was and she wasn't. My wife, her mother, we split up. So we share my daughter now, but she gets more time cause of some, stuff I did which is none of your business," Scott a bit more irritable than he usually would be, the touchy topic not helping matters. It's hard to say what Maxima might be reading in his mind. Shame, guilt, loneliness, images of a trial and prison. Nothing good.

But he sucks in a deep breath at the end and flashes a cock-eyed grin. "As to how I disappeared, I guess you mean like this," he teases, his helmet whirring back into place before he triggers the shrink mechanism. Maybe she could follow his descent this close up, maybe not. In either case he was soon out of sight if only because of the grass that grew up to the lip of the quarry, its stalks now like trees to the miniaturized man.

Maxima has posed:
The arm that was barring Scott's passage returns to Maxima's side after he answers her questions. She peers down into the grass after him, seemingly able to locate him by his mental presence. "So, you are able to shift your size. Both smaller and larger. Intriguing." If Scott could see Maxima's own thoughts right now, he might truly be running as they center on the applications of his power in war and how it might be acquired for the Blood Houses of the Almeracian Empire.

Maxima squats down above where the now tiny Scott shrank down. "Your daughter, why do you not challenge this woman to a Trial by Combat and reacquire the girl? Your adversary seems weak and easily broken. You are clearly lonely and desire the girl's presence, why do you not reacquire her?"

Scott Lang has posed:
Shifting had left Scott woozy again, he had already pushed himself near his limits before Maxima arrived and he sets a hand against his helmet as she speaks. In no hurry to do it again, he instead takes a seemingly impossible jump up and lands on Maxima's bent knee now that she was squatted down. A tap to his helmet turns on its speakers amplifying his otherwise insignificant voice before he crosses his arms.

"Yea I already got in enough trouble with our country's legal system without adding domestic abuse to the charges thank you very much. It doesn't work like that here your highness. The courts say who gets her when and unfortunately my being an ex-con means I get to see her less. If it hadn't been for me becoming an Avenger I might not get to see her at all...and I'm not THAT lonely!" lies the pipsqueak sized man hiding in the middle of the woods punching balloon clowns 2 days before Christmas. Socially well-adjusted as can be.

Maxima has posed:
Maxima's gaze shifts to the tiny man on her knee. "Your mouth says one thing, but your thoughts betray another Scott Lang. Very well. I have decided I desire your power for the genetic creches of the Imperial Blood House. If you are willing to provide a sample of your genetic material, I will take your daughter back for you and compensate you for your damaged course." It almost seems more like a pronouncement than a proposal.

"Will this suffice?" She holds out a hand and a nearby rock is telekinetically pulled into her grasp. As she looks down at it for a moment, the rock glows briefly with telekinetic energy and then suddenly seems to have become a baseball sized chunk of solid gold. "I am not terribly familiar with how this planet values things, though I have observed this metal is particularly prized."

Scott Lang has posed:
There's a very long pause as Scott has a lot to parse through in short order. "I'm sorry you want what to do what? I..." and yes there is just a moment as he considers unleashing an alien megaforce upon his ex-wife. But despite them no longer getting along so well, she wasn't really a BAD woman. He had been the one to go to jail trying to steal rather than telling her he'd lost his job with a baby on the way. She'd done the logical thing. Finally Scott shakes his head as if to clear the image away, though not without frequent glances at the rock of gold. It was easily worth tens of thousands of dollars and he fidgets just looking at it.

"N-no. No, look Maxima I appreciate the offer but again, we don't solve family issues on Earth by force! And my power isn't genetic anyway, a blood sample isn't going to help you...you can leave the gold though, you do still owe me for the broken hamster cage. That uh, that should ALMOST cover it," he tries to innocently play off. Yes, lie to the woman who can read your thoughts and greed. Smart play.

Maxima has posed:
Maxima listens as Scott makes the case for not destroying his ex-Wife. It all seems quite foreign to her, why listen to some 'arbiter' when you can just take the things you want if you are strong enough to do so. It is a very war-like imperialistic way of thinking. She probably would have gotten along well with Ghengis Khan or Atilla the Hun. "And your 'daughter', what does she want?"

When Scott mentions his power is not genetic though a deceptively delicate looking red eyebrow arches curiously. "Not genetic? Then how did you obtain this power?" She asks, her face drawing perhaps uncomfortably close to the tiny Scott, enough so that he can feel her warm breath passing over him. She seems very interested in this.

Scott Lang has posed:
"She...she likes spending time with me more I think. I was always the fun...you don't need to get so close," Scott says as Maxima lowers her visage over him with a blast of hot air from her nostrils that put him in mind of the T-Rex from Jurassic Park. He scoots backwards on her knee and looks behind him before leaping off onto a stalk of grass, then hops to another further back. "My daughter enjoys spending time with me! But I know I need to share. And I'm sorry but, the power is a secret."

Her telepathy, don't think about it, don't think about it, how could he think about something else? He had to think of something else. What to do when you're nervous. What was that about being in front of a crowd when you're nervous? Picture the audience naked? NO! WAIT! BRAIN STOP! It was too late. Scott gazes at Maxima in horror as his mind's eye fills in details it should not.

"I, I should be going. We have a holiday coming up. Need to get on that," he stammers hopping back another stalk. It would make sense to turn full-size now if he was just planning to leave. Somehow he felt like being able to hide quickly might be more handy.

Maxima has posed:
"And these 'courts', they do not care what your daughter wants? Yours is a strange set of ways to allow this Scott Lang." Maxima informs him. But then he is leaping away.

The expression that crosses Maxima's face when Scott's thoughts betray him is perhaps not the one he would have expected, is that amusement? "You are a strange one, you flee from getting too close and yet you are imagining me without my armor. A strange one indeed. It seems you run away from everything that you want."

With that she straightens up to her full height. Maybe everything is fine now, maybe she'll just leave... That is when Scott feels a sensation he may not have experienced before as he begins lifting into the air, tiny form seized by telekinetic force as he is brought up and up and up until he is eye level with the standing Maxima. One hand is tossing the chunk of gold up and catching it like a baseball as she regards him. "I want to know that secret Scott Lang. Tell me and be on your way." Maxima says in the tone of a young woman who has probably not been successfully denied anything in her entire life.

Scott Lang has posed:
Hop and...why wasn't he landing? Despite not growing in size Scott finds his viewpoint lifting as he's raised upwards, flailing helplessly in mid-air. A fall at this size wouldn't kill him, but it was still disconcerting, especially with nothing below him as he's made to face Maxima who looms like a redhead kaiju. And all the confidence a city-destroying monster might have too. He swallows down a lump in his throat and keeps focusing on various things he can see. The gold, the quarry, the trees, doing his best to think about anything but what she wants though glimpses of it flash here and there, unable to completely control the way his mind wanders.

"I don't, want, some violent, naive...brat," Scott speaking slowly as he works to keep his mind clear while also putting his thoughts together one word at a time. Sub-atomic, it was the only hope of getting away, but he couldn't do it wrapped in whatever energy she had him in now. He wasn't sure entirely how her telepathy worked but he was certain by now it had to be focused on him, probing at him. He grits his teeth not liking the idea he comes up with but seeing no other way as he raises a hand to his helmet and works a few controls.

"Here, I've got a a few million other secrets for you instead," he snaps at her before he deactivates some of the safety's on the ant-control helmet. Normally the telepathic-like link he had with ants through the helmet was one-way. With the safety off, that was no longer the case. His mind and Maxima's suddenly bombarded with the alien insectoid thoughts of millions of bustling insects in the surrounding area. It was as good a distraction as he could think of, even as if threatens to drive him utterly insane in the process.

Maxima has posed:
Maxima's own mind is a veritable fortress, no thoughts enter save those she desires to hear. Yet for all of that cosmic level psychic power, she was not expecting a trojan horse, that Scott would suddenly flood his mind with millions of different insect minds. It is enough to catch her off guard if only for a moment and in that moment Scott finds himself in freefall as her telekinetic grip is momentarily loosened. "What strange madness is this?!" Maxima cutting off her telepathic contact with Scott's mind.

Scott Lang has posed:
Scott's mind ISN'T a fortress sadly. He drops and collapses onto the dirt at Maxima's feet, no nimble drop but just facefirst. "Nest, food, dig, protect," he recites in a monotone, his mind just one of millions interconnected. At least it might help hide him a few seconds more, just another bug now. In amongst the madness, a flash of a young blond girl. "Nest, food, dig, Cassie, protect, nest, food, Cassie, nest, Cassie, Cassie, Cassie," Scott focusing on his daughter over all else, fighting through the madness.

Reprogramming the safeties would take time, time he doesn't have. Instead he slams the shrink controls in his palm again during a moment of clarity and shrinks further, Maxima going from titaness to planetoid, to out of sight above him as he enters an entirely new world and the voices of the ants fade with it, each of them now so massive they don't even register on his scale anymore. He breathes a sigh of relief as he tumbles into the Microverse and begins fixing his helmet, a strange hunger for nectar still dwelling in the back of his brain through it all.

Maxima has posed:
Maxima watches the tiny Scott Lang vanish before her eyes in the moment that her telekinetic focus slipped and she scowls in annoyance. She can no longer feel his mind indicating that unlike before he must be well and truly gone.

The baseball sized golden rock is crushed in her grip, fragments exploding in all directions. Its remains are left behind in the quarry, forgotten in the face of the fact she was denied and her quarry escaped. But for now she takes to the skies again, there is still her original objective to investigate and she can find the strange vexing Earthling again later.