The Unstoppable Wasp

by Sam Maggs

  The same applied in battle.

  Nadia leapt off Ying’s shoulder, exploding into the air directly next to the A.I.M. agent on her right, sending him stumbling back as Ying ducked, spun, and kicked, relieving the other agent of his connection to the ground. Ying held out her arms and Nadia tucked her waist between them. At the exact same moment Nadia jumped from the floor, Ying hoisted her friend upward. Nadia fanned her legs out, kicking in a circle—hitting the right agent on the way up, and bashing the left agent on the way down. Both agents both dropped, unconscious. A perfect pas de deux.

  Ying set Nadia down gently. The two spared a second for a high-five as Nadia checked out the door. Clear—for the moment.

  Worried for her other friend, Nadia rushed over and grabbed Priya. She could feel how weak her friend already was.

  “Are you okay?!” Nadia asked Priya. “You have a lot of plants going—”

  “Can’t for much longer,” Priya said through gritted teeth. She slouched to a seated position. “Brain melting.”

  “Okay,” Nadia said, though she did not in that moment feel okay. “Okay. We can do this. Take Ying and Margaret—” Wait. Nadia’s head snapped up. Margaret. Where was Margaret?

  “Looking for this?” asked a voice behind her. Nadia spun. Monica had come around after Nadia’s face punch and was pulling herself out of the mess of servers, looking a little worse for wear.

  She had something in her hand. Pinched between two fingers, in fact. And if Nadia just squinted, she could see a tiny, struggling figure.

  Margaret.

  “Waiting for your backup?” Monica taunted. She shook Margaret a little too hard for it to be a joke. Five more A.I.M. agents marched into the server room, Ying among them in cuffs. Nadia smiled. It would take five grown men to hold back one Ying.

  Monica laughed. “VERA belongs to A.I.M. And so do her users, in just a few minutes. You tried,” she said with a shrug, “but you failed. There’s no one coming for you now.”

  Nadia looked everywhere she could for an exit, a strategy, a plan of any kind—but she was outnumbered. Inside the building and out. She had no other options. Her friends were captured; even Margaret had been bested. That’s what you get for using your super suit as a newbie. Nabbed by Monica Rappaccini. So embarrassing. So frustrating. So buzzing.

  So…buzzing?

  But there was buzzing. Lots of it. Loud, and getting louder. Nadia looked around the room in a panic. Were the servers about to blow? Monica and the A.I.M. agents looked just as confused. But it wasn’t coming from inside the room. It got louder, and louder, and—

  “Sorry—were you saying something about backup?” Dedushka stepped through the door to the server room. Nadia was so shocked to see Jarvis in a combat situation that she almost missed Janet and Bobbi following in their full Super Hero attire. Janet flipped out her wings; Bobbi whipped out her battle staves; Jarvis tightened his ascot. Behind them, a swirling portal yawned, projected from a miniaturized teleportation device on the floor—Ying must have dropped it from her hidden pocket intentionally before being cuffed. As Nadia watched in surprise, Shay crossed the portal’s event horizon, pushing Tai in her chair. Tai’s hands were too busy to push herself, manipulating a handheld remote control.

  Monica stared for a moment—but a moment was all they needed.

  Tai grinned. She pushed a joystick forward on her controller. From behind her, through the portal, an entire colony of Bee-Boi drones flooded the room, buzzing loudly.

  And strapped to each one of their backs was a Wasp’s Stinger.

  Monica’s mouth dropped open.

  “Aim for the quantum oscillators!” yelled Nadia.

  The Bees opened fire.

  Nadia jumped on top of Priya, pushing her flat against the ground and shielding her from the debris as the Bee-Bois annihilated every inch of the room’s servers. The electric blasts destroyed row after row, decimating VERA’s brain from the inside out. They spared a few blasts for Monica and her agents, too, of course; Nadia hoped that other colony members were able to find Roger Bain before he escaped. But destroying VERA was the primary concern right now, and they were taking care of that effortlessly.

  The blasting stopped; the buzzing went silent. Nadia lifted her head, coughing even through her helmet. There were sparks and small electrical fires and dust and twisted metal everywhere. Janet helped Ying to her feet while Bobbi and Jarvis checked to ensure all A.I.M. agents were sufficiently unconscious and zip-tied.

  “Did they work?” came Alexis’s voice over the radio.

  Nadia looked around the room at the total and complete carnage where VERA’s servers and core used to stand. “Yes,” Nadia responded. “I would say they did. Nice one, Taina.”

  Tai shrugged, trying to play it cool, but Nadia knew she was proud. “Just glad Wasp Senior and the Golden Oldies were able to show up with us in time,” she said.

  “Watch it, kid,” Bobbi muttered, but Nadia saw her smiling, too.

  With a pop, Margaret materialized next to Nadia—full size again. She opened her mouth to speak, but Nadia grabbed a zip tie from her dedushka and had it around Margaret’s wrists before she even knew what was happening.

  “Wait, I just—” Margaret began to protest, tugging her wrists away—but it was too late. S.H.I.E.L.D. agents were already pouring into the room, examining the decimated servers, dragging incapacitated A.I.M. agents out by their buckets—and coming for Margaret.

  “This her?” the suit that approached Nadia asked.

  “It is,” Nadia confirmed. “But she’s not entirely at fault. A.I.M.—Roger Bain—”

  “On the lam,” said the suit. “But we’ll find him.”

  Nadia sighed. “Or we will.”

  Margaret looked at Nadia—and stopped struggling. Her helmet retracted, and Nadia did the same. She looked into Margaret’s eyes, and against all odds, still saw her friend.

  A friend who had screwed up really, really badly.

  But a friend nonetheless.

  “Thank you,” Margaret said to Nadia.

  Nadia was surprised. “Thank me? For what?”

  “For understanding me,” Margaret said simply.

  It was the right thing to say, the one thing Nadia could relate to most.

  Nadia squeezed Margaret’s hands one more time—and tore off Margaret’s Wasp gloves, including the access to her Pym Particles. “Limits are important.” Nadia gave a signal to the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, who took over Margaret’s restraints. “I hope you learn to respect that. I know I will. So thank you, for that lesson.”

  “Think they’ll let me use my powers for good?” Margaret joked. The S.H.I.E.L.D. agent didn’t smile.

  “I think VERA should stay buried,” said Nadia. “But there are rehabilitation programs. If you could learn to use your brain to help instead of harm…”

  The S.H.I.E.L.D. agent turned. “Let’s go.”

  Margaret looked behind her one last time before walking out the door. She left the remains of her life’s work around Nadia’s feet. She looked, suddenly, very small.

  Nadia turned away from the door to find Ying, Priya, Tai, Shay, Janet, Jarvis, and Bobbi waiting for her.

  “Well,” said Janet. “That was very good work, everyone.”

  “Sorry we were late,” offered Bobbi. “Just glad that Alexis texted us all. About eighty-seven times.”

  “I did break several speed limits on the way here,” Jarvis added.

  “I won’t tell.” Nadia gave him a smile. “Is everyone okay?”

  Everyone nodded.

  “All good here,” Alexis said over the comms. “S.H.I.E.L.D.’s clearing out the last of the walking Hefty bags.” She paused. “Everyone good there? Is Tai—”

  “We’re all okay,” Ying cut in. “Decidedly not terminated.”

  From behind them, Shay’s portal flashed—and suddenly expelled a massive and completely unexpected pile of socks. On top of the pile, a pair of woolen cat ears pointed straight up at the sky.
<
br />   “My socks!” Priya blurted out. They all laughed, tension slowly dissipating.

  The gang was safe.

  “So.” Bobbi nudged Nadia with a stick. “Think you can take the rest of the night off work?”

  Nadia laughed. It would be her first night off in ages.

  “Cheers!” Nadia grinned and held up her soda. She was sitting in the G.I.R.L. kitchen—now with a nice new table and chairs, big enough to fit the whole gang!—and celebrating their great success at the Like Minds showcase.

  The table was littered with leftovers: turkey, cranberry sauce (the canned kind with the weird indents, obviously), gravy, mashed potatoes, stuffing. Now that Hank Pym’s house had been sold, Nadia was officially moved into her room at the lab—and what better way to celebrate her new home than with a real American Thanksgiving dinner?

  Which also featured plates of veggie sambusas, atakilt, and gomen; Nadia had been craving Ethiopian for weeks.

  “Can someone pass the salad?” asked Ying, reaching her hands out.

  “I can’t believe you wanted salad at Thanksgiving dinner.” Shay shook her head.

  “What?” Ying looked at her girlfriend incredulously.

  Shay laughed and gave Ying the dish. “You’re killin’ me, Smalls.”

  “The Sandlot!” Ying said excitedly. “You remembered one!”

  “At least she’s not seeing dead people,” Bobbi snickered.

  Shay shushed her quickly. “We haven’t done that one yet!”

  Bobbi shoved a giant forkful of potatoes into her mouth by way of shutting up. Once the G.I.R.L. squad had returned to Pym Labs in the aftermath of the whole HoffTech situation, Janet and Bobbi had pulled Nadia aside. Of course Nadia had been grateful they’d arrived to help handle Margaret, but she couldn’t help but still be hurt, especially by Bobbi’s earlier actions.

  “Listen, Nadia,” Bobbi said gently, grasping Nadia by the shoulder. “I’m sorry. About before. I hope you know my intentions were good, even if I went about things in the wrong way.”

  “And I’m sorry if I ever made you feel like you couldn’t come to me with something like Maria’s journal,” added Janet.

  Nadia shook her head. “It wasn’t that. I just…didn’t want to hurt you.”

  Surprising Nadia, Bobbi threw her head back and cackled. “Amazing. We were all trying so hard to be nice to each other, we ended up hurting each other. Really solid stuff.”

  “Next time,” suggested Janet, “honesty? Even if it hurts a little upfront?”

  Nadia smiled, and threw herself forward, embracing both women in a hug simultaneously. Janet and Bobbi laughed, trying not to bonk heads as Nadia’s impressive strength dragged them together.

  And so they were all back together in the Lab, and things were going to be okay. Things always ended up okay, as far as Nadia was concerned. That was one of the many upsides of having chosen her own family. They always had to keep choosing each other. And they always did.

  “So the reception was good?” Janet asked, grabbing some empty dishes off the table and taking them to the sink.

  “Definitely,” said Priya. “We were also the best-dressed team by a wide margin.”

  Janet waved a thank-you in acknowledgment of her skills. She had made sure the team looked impeccable for their presentation on the Like Minds show floor.

  “It sounds like Stark Industries is going to pick up the Bee-Bois for further R and D,” Taina said excitedly around a mouthful of sambusa.

  “They should!” Nadia added enthusiastically. After the debacle at HoffTech, Nadia, Taina, Priya, Shay, and Ying had spent the rest of the week together in the lab, working on improving Taina’s Bee-Bois. After they removed the weaponized Stingers (naturally), Priya had helped develop a bio-agent that would help make flowers more receptive to the drones, delivered with Ying’s sewage-treatment agent. Shay and Taina had made the drones more nimble, and Nadia had linked them all with the quantum-speed connection she’d been working on with VERA. It was the perfect team project, and they’d absolutely nailed it.

  “Doesn’t seem too small-time to you, still?” Taina asked Nadia, a smirk on her face.

  Nadia speared a potato. She deserved that.

  “You were all right,” she admitted. “There’s nothing wrong with starting small.” She touched the Crystal Lab charm, safely around her neck once again. She knew she had the strength not to use it. She didn’t need to. And it was nice to have it on, as a reminder.

  Suddenly, Nadia recalled something she’d been meaning to do today. “Hold on,” she said, jumping up and running to her room. It was all unpacked; a riot of reds and oranges and fairy lights and notebooks and corkboards full of pictures of her family and friends. It was small and cluttered and entirely hers. She loved it. A home. Finally.

  On the desk where VERA used to live sat Maria’s journal—and a bright pink notebook. Nadia grabbed the notebook and ran back to the kitchen, holding it aloft.

  “I have this now!” she said excitedly.

  “Please tell me it’s not another mind-controlling robo-mom,” Taina groaned.

  “No.” Nadia shook her head. “My own journal. Look!”

  Nadia opened the book and flipped through it, showing her friends all the different pages. “Here’s my current project list—only two to three things at a time, I promise—and here’s my ideas for future projects, and here…here’s my own to-do list.”

  “That’s great, kid,” said Bobbi. “What’s on it?”

  Nadia sat back down in her chair and passed Bobbi the journal. She was happy to share this now, with everyone—no more secrets. Nadia had been clinging to the idea that doing the things Maria wanted to do with her might somehow reveal something more about Maria beyond the list—who she was, what she liked, what made her laugh. But with each item completed, Nadia never learned more about Maria—she knew exactly as much about her mother after watching A New Hope as she did beforehand: that Maria liked Star Wars.

  But she knew more about herself. She knew that her favorite ABBA song was “S.O.S.” because it was a bop but it was also kind of melancholy, and that was sometimes how Nadia thought of herself. She knew that she could walk on water and that palacsinta was easier to make than she thought it would be. She knew that she had friends who loved her and wanted to share in these moments with her.

  And she knew that Maria and Hank would always live on in her mind. She would never forget them. But she had a family. Right here. A way forward. And she was going to figure out every single item she’d want to put on her own list of favorite things.

  There was only one way to do that.

  “I took some things from Maria’s list—like the Insectarium,” Nadia explained, “but I added my own things, too. I have a lot to catch up on after the Red Room, but I wanted to be the one to decide what was important to me. So ‘Thanksgiving dinner in my own home’ can be the first item we check off!”

  Bobbi passed the journal to Janet with a smile. “I love it. Are you taking suggestions?”

  Nadia bobbed her head enthusiastically. “Absolutely.”

  “I notice you kept Star Wars on here,” Ying said approvingly.

  “‘Go shopping with Shay’ and ‘Learn how to do hair with Priya’ are numbers four and five.” Shay grinned. “Nice.”

  “And there’s our hockey game.” Janet smiled. “Ah, and ‘weekly therapy for life.’” Janet ruffled Nadia’s hair. “Strong choice.”

  “Is there anything on there about learning to drive a car?” Nadia’s dedushka suggested primly. “I sincerely hope so, because you are about to be late for your lesson.”

  Nadia jumped out of her chair. “Oh no. She’s scary when I’m late.”

  “She’s not that scary,” Bobbi said, rolling her eyes. “Trust me.”

  “No, she really is.” Nadia grabbed her jacket and phone and ran for the door. “See you! Happy Thanksgiving!”

  The G.I.R.L.s and A.D.U.L.T.s called their good-byes to Nadia as she ran out the door, l
eaving the delicious food smells behind her. She jetted down the elevator and out through the lobby, the Wasp charm on her phone swinging wildly beside her. Nadia ran through the sliding glass doors into glorious rays of the golden-hour sunshine—and sure enough, there was her instructor, leaning against her bright blue ride.

  “’Sup, Buzzer?” The blond woman tipped her chin in greeting. She tossed Nadia her car keys. “You’re late.”

  “I know, I know!” Nadia winced, catching the keys and rushing to the driver’s-side door. “Sorry, Captain. Won’t happen again.”

  Carol Danvers slid into the passenger side of her 1971 Mustang and watched Nadia fumble with the keys. “Am I really that scary?”

  “Yes.” Nadia finally got the car going. She turned to smile at her instructor. “But it’s what I like about you.”

  Carol laughed. “All right. Why don’t we head over to my place? Got a certain Flerken that’s been missing you.”

  Nadia’s eyes lit up. “I’m ready.” She smiled.

  Carol nodded and Nadia peeled away from the curb. She was still busy, and she still had a lot to learn about herself—and about being a Cool American Teen. She felt the void left by Margaret in her heart; she hated being disappointed by people she trusted. And she had a long way to go before G.I.R.L. changed the world. But she had her friends, her family, her therapist, and the coolest, scariest driving instructor on the planet. Probably on several planets, actually.

  Nadia was feeling good about starting small. She knew if she was patient and she worked hard, it would, one day, lead to something big. And that was worth waiting for.

  I owe a massive debt of gratitude to so many people for this, my actual, real-life YA debut novel that somehow exists in reality: Maria Vicente, my incredible agent and friend, without whom I would be nowhere; Megan Logan and Nachie Marsham, who took a chance on me and helped shape Nadia’s prose voice; Lyssa Hurvitz, who got the book into your hands; Laura Bifano, who made the world’s most beautiful cover; Dr. Matthew Conner and Chris Ceary, MS, who ensured that Nadia’s mental health journey was represented as compassionately and accurately as possible; Sarah Sloat, who double-checked my science; Jeremy Whitley, for trusting me with his children; my parents, who showed me what it means to truly prioritize a work-life balance; and Blair, who continues to support me as I try to find that very thing in my own life (slowly). Thanks for waking up with Eevee so often.