Chapter 1

It was a beautiful day in New York City, and Central Park was filled with the regular crowds. There were tourists strolling around, taking pictures. There were joggers steadily exercising their way down the sidewalks. There were picnickers, kids on school field trips, and artists painting landscapes. There were even a few celebrities, keeping their collars up and sunglasses on, hoping not to get noticed.

And yet almost none of the hundreds of people walking around the park even thought about the fact that there was a whole other world beneath their feet—the world of insects!

Millions of insects made the dirt under Central Park their home, and on a nice warm day like that one, the bugs were even busier than the humans were!

There was, however, one person who was paying very close attention to the insects, and he didn't like what he saw.

“That's strange,” said Scott Lang, the Astonishing Ant-Man, as he crouched to examine the tracks made by some ants that had recently passed through. “These aren't the traffic patterns I'd expect,” he mumbled to himself.

Of course, it was easier for Ant-Man to notice what the insects were up to because of his amazing power. He did have the ability to shrink to the size of an ant!

Right then he was no bigger than a bug, and he was standing in the tunnel entrance of an anthill.

“I need to find out what's happening,” Scott said to himself as he followed the ant tracks deeper down the tunnel. To better understand ants, Ant-Man had been studying their behavior up close for years. He'd come to that particular anthill several times. And he could tell that something just wasn't right.

When he reached one of the anthill's main chambers, he was surprised to find most members of the ant colony lined up in a perfect row, standing at attention like little soldiers.

“What are you doing, guys?” Ant-Man asked out loud. Usually there was as much commotion in one of these chambers as in a New York subway station during rush hour, so it was eerie to see all the ants standing completely still. “Are you sick or something?”

Of course, the ants didn't understand English, but Ant-Man did have the ability to communicate with them. Ant-Man's equipment could release pheromone scents. Ants, which had a much stronger sense of smell than humans did, used those kinds of odors to send messages to one another.

But even when Ant-Man released pheromones, the ants still didn't respond; they just stood there in a trance. They weren't asleep, but it wasn't like they were fully awake, either!

“I have to get to the bottom of this,” said Ant-Man as he used a syringe to get a sample of an ant's hemolymph, the clear fluid ants had instead of blood.

Ant-Man stuck the sample in his handheld device, which clicked and beeped before flashing a report across its screen.

“A virus?” said Ant-Man, reading from the device. “I've never seen this kind before, but according to these readings, I suspect it could be passed to humans!”

“This could be extremely serious,” said Ant-Man, “like the time that space virus quickly ripped through a S.H.I.E.L.D. moon base. All one hundred and twenty agents were infected within hours!”

The space station incident had been different, because the station was contained, so the virus couldn't spread to Earth. Ant-Man didn't even want to think about what could happen if some unknown virus started to infect people across New York. It could quickly become an epidemic that could get millions sick. . .or worse!

Ant-Man knew immediately that he had to take his information to the best Super Hero team in the world. “I have to find the Avengers,” said Ant-Man. “I might be able to research a cure for this by myself, but if the virus starts to spread, it will take a whole team to manage containment. The Avengers will know what to do!”

Ant-Man rushed from the anthill. . .but as soon as he was gone, the ants he had been examining started to move.

Reaching the surface, Ant-Man sized himself up to his normal human height and rushed off to find Iron Man and the other Avengers.

As he left, he passed a couple picnicking on a blanket in the grass.

“Boy, the ants really are out today,” said the man.

“Yeah, they're everywhere,” agreed the woman. “Ouch! I think one just bit me. . .”